Camille Seals

Head of School

Columbus School for Girls

From the time she entered Hathaway Brown School as a preschooler to when she concluded her undergraduate career at Spelman College, perhaps the most lasting lesson Seals learned was to carry herself with confidence. That quality has served her well as a leader—first as Director of Multicultural Affairs at her alma mater, then later as Assistant Head of School at The Agnes Irwin School and now as Head of School at Columbus School for Girls.

“Attending a girls’ school gives you this sense of courage and confidence to occupy a space and hold your head high even when you’re the single voice representing your gender, your race, or your culture,” Seals said.

Seals’ experience is just one example of just how integral learning in a space uniquely designed for girls can be for women. A study by Dr. Linda J. Sax published by the Sudikoff Family Institute for Education & New Media and the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies found that the majority of girls’ school graduates report higher self-confidence than their co-educated peers. The atmosphere is one that gives girls and young women a sense of agency and efficacy that they carry with them to affect change in their communities and careers.

For Seals, attending a girls’ school helped her learn how to not only value her own worth, but the worth of her fellow students. Fostering this appreciation would have been much more difficult in coeducational spaces in which girls are often pitted against each other.

“I want to be in girls’ schools to raise up girls and young women who will also cheer for other women,” Seals said.

Since joining Columbus School for Girls as Head of School this past fall, Seals has spearheaded new initiatives that continue the legacy of academic excellence for which the nearly 125-year-old school is known. One recent example is The Institute for Innovation & Leadership, a new program designed to provide experiential learning opportunities to augment core curricula. Consisting of six unique Centers, the Institute focuses on the areas of math, art, science, global studies, leadership, and equity and belonging.

In addition to prioritizing development of the Institute, Seals is also working alongside faculty and staff to continue CSG’s strong college preparatory initiatives. The work begins in earnest in the ninth grade, with curricula designed to thoughtfully and in developmentally appropriate ways help students bridge the gap between high school and college.

By the time students are ready to graduate, they are equipped with not only critical thinking skills, but also the social-emotional intelligence that is a result of spending their formative years in a community intentionally designed to meet the needs of girls and young women. And like Seals, CSG graduates gain the confidence that comes from finding their voice.

“Our students learn every day that being a girl is a position of honor.” Seals said. “Once they know their power, there is no limit to what they can do.”