Words from the Rector

Dear Friends of Chatham Hall:

I vividly remember my own first visits and my interview at Chatham Hall….

Late one winter afternoon my wife, Missy, and I were sitting in a formal living room in Pruden Hall with a large group of faculty. Our early morning flight had been cancelled, so we had arrived on campus late and tired. I was the last in the series of candidates for Rector whom they were interviewing. The faculty looked tired, and I could not get rid of the nagging notion that they had already heard my answers over and over again from the other candidates. Not a pretty scene, as a good friend of mine would say.

Then, suddenly, one question caught me off guard. I paused for a moment, and as I leaned back in my beautiful, antique chair to think, I heard a crack. I felt the chair begin to give way. As it crumbled and I started to fall, I thought, “This interview is a train wreck …”

It was not. We all laughed. A new chair appeared, along with a cup of coffee, and off we went with the original question and a number of others. And so I learned that is the way things are at Chatham Hall. We learn by asking challenging questions. We support one another with warmth and a good deal of humor. The spirit of the place lifts us all.

I also learned that Chatham Hall is down-to-earth. When a group of students interviewed me—in the same room as the broken chair!—one girl asked what I like to do with my free time. This is not going to be a popular answer, I thought, as I said that I am an opera fanatic. “You’re not winning any points,” one of the girls cracked. We all laughed. There it is, I thought, that wry, adolescent tone that I like so much. It cuts through uneasiness. It levels the playing field. “What you see is what you get,” I told the girl. At Chatham Hall, what you see is what you get. People are honest about themselves.

Chatham Hall is an intimate place. A girl can be daring here. She can venture an original, half-thought-out idea at the seminar table. An improvisation in the Black Box. An hypothesis in the lab. A spontaneous shot on goal on the playing field. A higher fence than she and her horse have taken before in the riding arena. A gesture of generosity and kindness in the dormitory. A prayer in the Chapel. Even a wise crack to a candidate for Rector in the living room.

I love the unique, female-focused, high-quality education in the best all-girls schools. Chatham Hall has it. The classes are energetic, intellectual, and intimate conversations. Our athletes practice competitive sportsmanship. The Honor Code works here—there is a strong sense of integrity in everyone’s actions. The Chapel and social service programs are thriving. Chatham Hall is a school for the mind, heart, and soul. We believe that these qualities make the best preparation for college. They also produce individualistic, self-assured women who will be powerful citizens and leaders in their adult lives.

Words from the Rector

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