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THE PLAN FOR EMMA WILLARDS THIRD CENTURYA Bicentennial Call to Action2010-2014

Mission Statement

Honoring its founders vision, Emma Willard School proudly fosters in each young woman alove of learning, the habits of an intellectual life, and the character, moral strength, and

qualities of leadership to serve and shape her world.

In 1814 pioneer educator Emma Hart Willard revolutionized education by envisioning a

world where girls had the same opportunities as boys. In 2014 her school will commemorate

two hundred years of her distinctive vision: empowering girls transforms the world. In honor of

its unparalleled educational leadership, Emma Willard School will celebrate its trademark legacyof empowerment and innovation. The entire Emma Willard community is called to embrace the

opportunities presented to the school as it crosses this historic threshold into its third century.

This Call to Action requires bold, entrepreneurial thinking, technological creativity, discipline,

and a commitment to extend the founders vision beyond Mount Ida.

Fundamental Principles

In 2002, The Plan For Emma Willards Third Century articulated four principles which

this Call to Action reaffirms.

A Tradition of Educational Excellence for Girls. As the first school to provide girls with aneducation commensurate with the best education available to their male counterparts, Emma

Willards legacy is unparalleled among American girls boarding schools. By adhering to this

mission in the twenty-first century, the school will be recognized a leader in secondary

education. Among the other educational firsts established by its founder are commitment todiversity, provision for financial aid, the utilization of the school as a laboratory for pedagogical

research, the inclusion in the curriculum of a regular program of physical education, and the

recruitment of international students.

Leadership.Emma Hart Willard ensured her graduates impact upon the world by equipping

them to be the teachers the growing nation required. At every juncture since, the school has

educated women to serve and shape their world. This legacy of leadership and service willcontinue as the school prepares future generations to define the multiple roles and

responsibilities of twenty-first-century women.

Academic Rigor. Emma Willard School is synonymous with academic and intellectual rigor in

all aspects of the curriculum. In sustaining the highest academic standards, the school will instill

in its students the love of learning, the habits of an intellectual life, and the moral strength and

integrity they will need to shape their world.

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Curriculum. Over the course of its history, Emma Willard has led the way for other schools in

curricular and pedagogical reform. Emma Willard will remain the school to which others turn

for leadership, insight, and advice in curricular matters. The Correlated Curriculum, the elective

curriculum of 1970, and the Dodge Study deserve twenty-first-century counterparts.

Guided by these principles, the school community will meet the challenges of the next

century armed with confidence, wisdom, resources and imagination.

The Bicentennial Call to Action

Over the last eighteen months, the school has conducted research, collected data and

developed long-range plans addressing the opportunities and challenges created by the structure

of the physical plant, financial practices, staffing levels and programmatic offerings. This

planning has inspired the creation of the following set of goals. The accomplishment of these

ambitious goals demands detailed, deadline driven lists of initiatives, many of which arecurrently underway.

Emma Willard School will be the benchmark for excellence in girls education worldwide.

By the time Emma Hart Willard made her first trip to Europe in 1830, her school in Troy

was the internationally acknowledged leader in girls education.

The Bicentennial Celebration will capture this rich legacy, honor its leadership in girls

education, and position it globally as the standard for educational excellence in the twenty-first

century. To this end, a bicentennial committee will engage each of the schools constituencies to

plan and execute this commemoration.

The school will craft and project a coherent message to all strategic audiences, usingmodern communications technology that advances understanding of its significant achievements

and increases its name recognition within the Capital Region and beyond. Fully engaging and

empowering the global network of accomplished and spirited alumnae will be essential in

meeting this goal.

Emma Willard School will achieve fiscal sustainability by utilizing mission-driven

opportunities, entrepreneurial pursuit of new practices, purposeful enhancement of the

historic campus, and long-term financial planning.

From the beginning, Emma Willard deliberately planned the financial future of the

school, championed the establishment of an endowment, balanced the income from tuitionagainst aid to needy students, focused on efficiency and marketability in designing the original

school building in Troy, and augmented the operational budget through the revenues she earned

as a successful textbook author.

In the twenty-first century the school practices careful stewardship, which will be guided

by intentionally designed financial tenets applied to all operations.

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Aggressive fund raising and endowment growth must be envisioned, but will be coupled

with the development of new revenue streams, the disciplined application of operating

efficiencies, environmentally conscious practices, and the sophisticated and smart use of

technology.

A comprehensive well-researched knowledge base will be the springboard for a re-evaluation of the best use of campus spaces.

Retaining a flexible, experienced board of trustees with new membership that more

broadly reflects the diversity of the full community is critical to institutional sustainability.

Emma Willard School will develop and deliver a curriculum responsive to the needs of girls

in a rapidly transforming, increasingly diverse world.

In 1814 Emma Hart Willard boldly decided that her students needed instruction in

mathematics, geography, science and history to prepare them to be citizens of the new republic.

In the twenty-first century, her school must re-examine the graduation requirements,

technological competencies, academic and social skills, ethics, pedagogical strategies, and the

core curricular foundation necessary to prepare current and future students to be citizens of the

world.

To this end the school will provide enhanced resources for vibrant professional growth,

and the faculty, in turn, will assess all current practices and systems to ensure excellence and

relevance and will create a comprehensive system for continual, nimble curricular revision.

Emma Willard School will be a dynamic learning community that intentionally fosters the

habits of an intellectual life both on Mount Ida and beyond.

In 1814 Emma Willard created not merely a school, but a community where women were

life-long learners, where teachers and students were partners in a revolutionary educational

enterprise.

In the twenty-first century, the intellectual essence of her community remains, but we

must re-imagine her vision through a global lens.

Through aggressive recruitment, the student body, the faculty and the board of trustees

will retain their commitment to fostering a love of learning while reflecting the diversity of

background, opinion and belief that are hallmarks of a multi-cultural society. Through creative

parent and alumnae programming, the prudent management of current and new resources,

expanded internships and faculty development, and the intentional design of a globally

representative student community, we will create an academic discourse that promotes authentic

cross-cultural sharing on campus and throughout the world.

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The school will purposefully inspire its students, faculty, trustees and alumnae to use

their educational bounty to serve the global good, capitalizing on the schools location and its

dynamic partnerships.

The faculty and staff form the heart of the learning community and must be competitively

compensated.

The Charge to the Emma Willard School Community

The bicentennial class arrives in the fall of 2010. 2014 is upon us. It is time for every

member of the Emma Willard community to respond to the opportunities provided by our

schools third century. Emma Hart Willard would expect nothing less.

The Plan for Emma Willards Third Century was approved by the Emma Willard SchoolBoard of Trustees in May 2002. The Bicentennial Call to Action was approved by the boardin May, 2010.