Dr. Dettmar welcomed the community to the academic year for the first time in her new role as dean of academics by highlighting the “fresh start effect.” This phenomenon suggests that people are particularly motivated to pursue goals immediately following significant, transitional moments in life. She encouraged the community to both embrace the new and try something new, while cherishing their “old” friendships.

 

Head of School Dr. Karen Lassey then delivered her first address to the Emma community, inspiring all to embrace the unfamiliar:

I am so thrilled to be here, in this spot, at this moment. 

On my second visit to Emma Willard last fall, I had an opportunity to tour this space when the Klingenstein Concert Hall was under construction. I stood right over there, before these seats, and even the floor, were in place. Looking up at the original, gorgeous wood trusses and the acoustic panels that were still being hung at the time, some looked to me like clouds, and others like great white birds soaring over the hall. I felt chills as I stood there, knowing that I could be here today, speaking at convocation, trying to manage my hopes, but fervently hoping anyway that I would be here.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to that process. I’m grateful to be here, and I’m grateful that all of you are here. We all came to Emma from different places, in different ways, and at different times. But, for many of the same reasons. 

This is a special place and a special school, and we are here this morning to celebrate the opening of the 212th academic year, one of many in a long legacy of inspiring, challenging, and empowering girls and women to serve and shape their worlds. 

 

It is wonderful to see the joy in this room this morning. For those of you who are new to Emma, you, like me, may also be experiencing challenge—the challenge that comes with change. I know that it is not easy to change schools. Everything is new to us—new people, new buildings, new landscape, new weather, new language, perhaps, and new food, new email system, new traditions. It can be overwhelming and exhausting. It takes extra cognitive energy. We have to think about everything we do and see because it is all unfamiliar. 

Last November, as I was driving back to New Hampshire after visiting Emma, I was listening to a podcast about imprinting—about those critical times in our lives, usually when we are quite young, when our brains are open, when so much is new and we learn very quickly, soaking up information like dry sponges. We are predisposed to be impressionable at those times, and we notice everything. 

As I was preparing myself to join a new community, I thought about how exciting it could be for my brain to be open again in that way. I knew it would be uncomfortable. And it is, in some ways, even as this is a wonderfully supportive community. It is just so much easier when everything is familiar. When anyone asked me what I might be nervous about in coming to Emma, my answer was about not having an extensive and deep knowledge of the school to draw on right away, the kind of knowledge that comes from being part of a place and community for a long time, knowledge that comes from familiarity. But as I thought more about that podcast, I tried to turn that worry inside out, to reframe it a little. I challenged myself to view this opportunity as a gift, one that would only happen once, and one that I shouldn’t waste by rushing through it too quickly, toward the comfort of familiarity.

I’d like to challenge you to do that as well this fall. To new students …as you notice things, ask questions about them. Reflect on them. You won’t ever have this time back, when you are seeing everything at Emma with fresh eyes. You might try, as I have, to walk slowly, to write in a journal, to take pictures sometimes, but more often to put phones away. You will each find your own paths. As you walk them, soak it all up and remember how it feels. Share how it feels. 

If you find yourself longing for a time when you will not feel out of place, when you will know, for instance, where Sage ends and Kellas begins, or which stairwell takes you to Willard’s Wardrobe, the Makerspace, or the Melligeri classroom… know that that time will come. You will eventually walk well-worn paths. In the meantime, try to keep your eyes and mind open. Slow down. Notice what you are noticing before details that stand out now start to fade into the background and become almost invisible.

To returning students, I challenge you to seek out the unfamiliar—meet and talk with new people, try to see the campus from their eyes, take a new path occasionally, explore new ideas…as Dr. Dettmar suggested, try something new as a fresh start. Consider different points of view; seek out new spaces that are less familiar to you and notice them—really notice them.

Even though we might be predisposed to crave it, we do not learn best when we are comfortable. When learning an unfamiliar language, it feels better to practice the words we already know, especially when we can feel ourselves mastering them with growing confidence. The review exercises in a math textbook can feel preferable as we practice acquired skills, but we know that the problem that introduces a new concept is likely to feel uncomfortably confusing for a while. 

Don’t misunderstand me, practice is a necessary component of learning, for sure. It is important to grow our confidence and build proficiency. But we can’t continue learning if we don’t continue to push ourselves into unfamiliar territory. It is what stretches us, what generates new pathways in our brains, what allows us to see or appreciate something from a new perspective, and what fuels our creativity. It takes a different kind of confidence to continually embrace newness, uncertainty, and even confusion. Rather than a confidence that comes from mastery, it is a confidence in ourselves, the belief that we can and will make sense of what is at first unfamiliar and that we will grow from that process. 

Here at Emma Willard, we grow in community. We believe in each other. 

Critical periods are, by nature, periods of vulnerability. In a very literal sense, I’ve risked stumbling sometimes as I have walked around campus, mesmerized by architectural details, chimneys, or murals in staircases, especially. But, more figuratively, if we are to open our minds and hearts to new and unfamiliar places or ideas, we need to be and feel safe. 

The safety and support of all of us is the responsibility of the whole community, and I have seen this at work already, especially in the last few days. As red tier leaders cheered and guided new students on opening day, as 9th graders coached and encouraged each other over rope bridges, and as they literally stepped off platforms into the unfamiliar! 

Over the next few months, we will all witness and participate in countless moments when this community will come together in big and small ways, when we will face unfamiliar challenges together and will ask for and give help to each other, when we will see, hear, and include each other as individuals, recognizing the fullness of our identities.

This is what I hope will become familiar for all of us. This is a school community where we all belong and a community that believes in each and every one of us. I am grateful to be a part of it and hope you are as well.

 

Following Dr. Lassey’s remarks, Dr. Dettmar introduced the student body to new faculty and Student Life Team members: 

Jesse Doherty, English Instructor
Dr. Cecilia Idika-Kalu, History Instructor
Amanda Lancaster, Houseparent
Gabriela Munoz Rojas, Mathematics Teaching Fellow
Dr. Eric Ofori, Mathematics Instructor
Noelle Poette, Director of Counseling
Brennan Robson, History Teaching Fellow
Emma Wray, Houseparent

Dean of Students Shelley Maher has made a tradition of sharing poetry for her closing thoughts to open each school year. This year’s selection was “Finding My Place” by John Burns:

In a world that spins with dizzying pace,
Wandering souls seek a comforting space.
A life full of questions, a heart full of doubt,
Puzzling one's purpose—what's it all about?

Behind every smile, a hidden frown,
The weight of existence often pulling us down.
We dance on a tightrope, so fragile and thin,
Balancing dreams against life's deafening din.

Struggling and striving, we search far and wide,
For a slice of contentment, a place we can bide.
We look to the stars, or deep in a book,
For answers that elude us, no matter where we look.

Yet, somewhere between the struggle and strife,
In unexpected moments, we stumble on life.
In laughter and tears, in love's tender embrace,
We find fleeting glimpses of our rightful place.

Amidst all the chaos, the noise, and the fray,
Hints of true purpose might light up our way.
While the struggle seems endless, and hardships won't cease,
In rare quiet moments, we find our own peace.

For in this grand struggle, so taxing, so grand,
Our place is just where we happen to stand.
Though life doesn't offer a map or a guide,
In seeking, we find where our true selves reside.

The newly-formed 2025–2026 Emma community joined together in the alma mater, the first opportunity for many to learn these soon-to-be-familiar words. The Class of 2026 delivered an especially enthusiastic “SHALL BE!” to launch us into a fresh year!

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View the full recording of Academic Convocation on the live feed archive.

See photos from Opening Week and Convocation on our SmugMug!