June 2004
Dear Friend,
I had dinner last week with two freshmen and two sophomores—excuse me, two sophomores and two juniors. It was that odd week following graduation. The seniors had left, and the underclasswomen were taking their exams. The juniors insisted on being called seniors, and we all complied, but no one seemed convinced. We were willing ourselves into the future.
Exam week: intellectual concentration and cynicism were in the air. During dinner that evening, the two (former) sophomores and I argued about books. One of them slumped, eyed me, shot back “No!”, and rapped the table with her fist when I referred to Lord of the Rings as Bored of the Rings. “It’s just one action scene, one war, one clever fantasy after another…” said the other sophomore. “But there is nothing to involve your heart.” An attack on Jane Austen followed from the slumping sophomore. Her classmate rolled her eyes. We moved on to Dickens. He took his beating, but also had his advocate.
One of the freshmen was taking in all of this, and exams clearly were taking their toll on her: “You are born, you suffer, and you die,” she complained. “You should learn Shakespeare’s seven stages of life,” one of the sophomores said. “Jaques, As You Like It,” I added. The freshman cynic stood up, eyed us, and stated abruptly, “I need bread!” Off she went to make some toast. When she returned, we modified her stages of life. “We are born, we take exams, we survive….” On the evening went.
At one point I noticed the large abstract painting, a triptych, that now hangs on the wall at the end of the dining room—Blue, Yellow, and Red Birds by Farida Hughes. One has to work to make out birds in the jagged, varied shapes in this painting. Farida, who lives on campus with her husband, Chris Hughes, our academic dean, and their two children, had explained the painting a week before, at its dedication, and I had watched the students and faculty adjusting their vision that morning, struggling to bring the abstract figures in that painting into familiar, real shape in their minds.
All of the girls at dinner that evening had been new girls in September, unfamiliar abstractions to one another and to me as they began to wrestle themselves into this new reality of Chatham Hall. Each had questioned in the course of the year whether or not she would return to Chatham Hall. But there they were before me—one girl who had found herself on the soccer field and a new level of hard academic work, two who were writing for the newspaper and planning a debate team for next year, and the pessimist who was still looking, but seemingly content in doing so.
In my first year of being Rector at Chatham Hall, everything was initially a vague, unfamiliar abstraction. We’ve managed to wrestle a few into reality. We began the year, we set our sights, and…
Seniors who spent months anxiously planning their futures are off to Cornell, Dartmouth, U.Va., Vassar, Georgetown, Connecticut College, SMU, Purdue, Sewanee, Bennington, the Honors Program at Mary Washington, and the like.
Our heady dreams of making Chatham Hall a center for discussion of national and international issues had Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, dining in Yardley, the poet-activist Nikki Giovanni challenging all of us from the podium in the Well, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi tossing an iris from a bouquet into the section of our students at her address to the Chatham-Danville-Lynchburg community.
Relentless and spirited traveling, phoning, and mailing have taken the Annual Fund over $900,000 ($100,000 more than last year) and taken Rector’s Circle membership ($10,000+) to a new School high of 36—4 more than the previous record in 1996 and 13 more than last year.
Our swimmers powered themselves to state rankings. Ann O’Brien ‘07 is all-state in the butterfly and a state finalist in the backstroke; SJ Weisberg ’07 is a state consolation finalist in the 500 freestyle. The tennis team nearly powered itself to the league championship, losing in a tiebreaker in the final doubles match. Riders filled the walls at Mars Arena with trophies and ribbons, including Samantha Franklin ’05, who took four major championships, among them the Commonwealth National Horse Show at Culpeper, Virginia.
The freshmen set a pace for the future, holding five of the six leads in our spring musical, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Two freshmen were recognized at Spring Convocation for their perfect 4.0 grade-point averages. One other freshman, Leandra Lambert, and sophomore Maria Vega were presented A Better Chance national awards for academic excellence.
The Margaret Hall Foundation awarded Chatham Hall $15,500 (its largest grant for the year) for science equipment and supplies, allowing us next year to provide six students with independent-study supervision by award-winning chemistry teacher Maureen Miller.
You are hired, you complete a year, and you plan for the next…
A team of administrators returned from D.C. last night after two days of meetings with marketing executive and Board member Linda Higgison. A bold marketing plan, based upon distinctive Peaks of Excellence at the School, is in the offing.
In July a team of trustees, alumnae, parents, friends of the School, faculty, and
administrators will gather on campus to review the current draft of the Strategic Plan. They will finalize the plan and present the goals for the School for the next five years to the Board for approval in September.
As part of the strategic planning process, we will refine Chatham Hall’s fund-raising goals. Through a series of events in various cities during the coming year, we will consult with leaders of the School community regarding these goals.
Plans are in the works for distance learning in Shaw, the new science and technology building. During the winter term next year, we are arranging for Professor Holly Davidson ’70 of Brandeis University to offer our students and faculty a course on understanding the Arab world through film.
The Riding Program will add a competitive show team next year, with a schedule that will include four to five weekends in the winter term at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Florida.
Next year we are planning to undertake the first phase of a new, weeklong internship program, linking juniors to alumnae in a major city. This year’s senior class gift provides partial funding for this new program.
We will prepare ourselves for another group of stellar freshmen, several of whom have SSAT scores in the highest percentiles.
We are dreaming Chatham Hall into the future this summer. Details of this vision will come your way in the fall letter. Talk to you then.
All best wishes,
Gary Fountain
Rector
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October 13, 2008
Day Student Open House
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November 9-10, 2008
Open House
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December 1. 2008
Early Decision Applications Due
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December 7-8
Open House
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December 15
Notification for Early Decision Applicants
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January 10
Reply Date - Contracts and deposits due for students admitted Early Decision
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January 18-19
Open House
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February 10
Applications and Financial Aid materials Due
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February 15-16
Open House
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March 10
Notification for Applicants
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April 4-5
Revisit Weekend for admitted students and their families
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April 10
Reply Date - Contracts due for admitted students