On August 31, the school came together to officially herald the start of our 199th year at Opening Convocation. During the event, Head of School Trudy Hall gave her traditional opening remarks and while inspirational, these remarks were likely not what the audience originally expected. She told all the girls to acknowledge and even embrace their own failures and mistakes.
“You cannot get to a meaningful, substantive, crowd-cheering, prize-winning success without failure. A lot of it,” she told the assembled school. “More than merely something to be survived, failure is often the path to a great success, a better opportunity, a more satisfying adventure.”
The event also included formal introductions of the newest members of the faculty and staff, Assistant Head of School John Ball also proudly announced the new holders of two very important endowed teaching chairs. To rousing applause he bestowed the Julia Howard Bush Chair to Debra Spiro-Allen, the current director of vocal music and arts and chair of the Arts Department. Then, with another round of cheers, he welcomed Sabra Sanwal, instructor in language, as the new Nettie Sweeney and Hugh Thomas Miller Chair.
