We are the nation’s first Fair Trade High School - a status achieved through the dedicated student work of Slavery No More, headed by Natalia Choi ’11.
Mission & Vision
Honoring its founder’s vision, Emma Willard School proudly fosters in each young woman a love 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 their brothers. The School she founded in 1814 remains vibrantly true to her vision.
Yet, 2014 is on the horizon. The time has come to imagine what is needed if Emma Willard School is to remain the living legacy of Emma Willard, writ large and bold, as it celebrates 200 years of excellence in girls’ education.
The school’s history is replete with stories of resilience, leadership, and educational innovation, stories that justifiably inspire pride. Now we must envision the way to the future and that will require imagination, wisdom, hard work, and significant resources. It is the school’s intention to mark a bold, distinctive path, one that will cement Emma Willard’s position of strength in the independent school world, as well as its superb reputation around the world.
Moving forward means embracing complex issues with the intentionality for which the institution is well known. Moving forward means making the right decisions to ensure mission relevance and fiscal sustainability and efficiently engaging the Emma Willard community in an important conversation about critical questions. How can Emma Willard School effectively demonstrate that a 200-year-old vision remains powerfully real in a world of educational options unimaginable even a century ago?
The Board of Trustees will use the following vision to guide our planning conversation:
Emma Willard will be recognized as the innovator in individualized education, empowering girls through a transformative cosmopolitan community.
We believe the most promising girls of the 21st century will seek an education that has a noble aim and that allows a traveler to choose her own path. We believe this can and should be true for the journey of every Emma girl. We intend to focus our energy on what we do best-- treat each girl as a gifted learner with individual needs and desires. No other boarding school will be able to tell such a comprehensive and compelling story about how every girl leaves ready to serve and shape her world. Furthermore each girl will create her own legacy as her personal educational experience becomes part of the community’s fabric.
Using this extraordinary community as a solid base, Emma Willard will transform the traditional notion of the girls’ “boarding school” from an insular world to one that launches a girl into a global arena of issues and opportunity. Using the extensive resources available to our community through our parents, the larger community surrounding us, our global connections, and our strong alumnae base, we will create an environment intentionally designed to equip girls to feel at home in the world no matter where they may find themselves.
As we approach our bicentennial celebration, it is time to energetically and creatively engage the school’s constituencies in the life of the school. And, we are charged to ensure to ensure that a core, consistent message of Emma Willard’s longstanding excellence is broadcast to a global audience. The school will imagine ways in which the institution can communicate its core messages through its actions, demonstrating that the institution itself is “serving and shaping” the world of girls education.