The
Emma Willard School, originally called Troy Female Seminary and often referred to simply as "Emma," is an independent
university-preparatoryA university-preparatory school or college-preparatory school is a secondary school, usually private, designed to prepare students for a college or university education. Some schools will also include a junior, or elementary, school...
day and
boarding schoolA boarding school is a school where some or all pupils not only study, but also live during term time, with their fellow students and possibly teachers. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board", that is, food and lodging...
for young women, located in
Troy, New YorkTroy is a city in New York, U.S., and the county seat of Rensselaer County. As of the 2000 census, the population was 49,170. Troy's motto is Ilium fuit, Troja est, which means "Ilium was, Troy is."...
on the scenic Mount Ida, offering grades 9-12 and PG. It was founded by the women's advocate
Emma WillardEmma Willard was an American women's rights advocate and the pioneer who founded the first women's school of higher education....
in 1814 and has an
endowmentA financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution, usually with the stipulation that it be invested, and the principal remain intact in perpetuity or for a defined time period...
of $115 million.
The
Troy Female Seminary was founded by
Emma (Hart) WillardEmma Willard was an American women's rights advocate and the pioneer who founded the first women's school of higher education....
in 1821 in
Troy, New YorkTroy is a city in New York, U.S., and the county seat of Rensselaer County. As of the 2000 census, the population was 49,170. Troy's motto is Ilium fuit, Troja est, which means "Ilium was, Troy is."...
. Prior to its founding women were generally excluded from being able to attend college.
The
Emma Willard School, originally called Troy Female Seminary and often referred to simply as "Emma," is an independent
university-preparatoryA university-preparatory school or college-preparatory school is a secondary school, usually private, designed to prepare students for a college or university education. Some schools will also include a junior, or elementary, school...
day and
boarding schoolA boarding school is a school where some or all pupils not only study, but also live during term time, with their fellow students and possibly teachers. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board", that is, food and lodging...
for young women, located in
Troy, New YorkTroy is a city in New York, U.S., and the county seat of Rensselaer County. As of the 2000 census, the population was 49,170. Troy's motto is Ilium fuit, Troja est, which means "Ilium was, Troy is."...
on the scenic Mount Ida, offering grades 9-12 and PG. It was founded by the women's advocate
Emma WillardEmma Willard was an American women's rights advocate and the pioneer who founded the first women's school of higher education....
in 1814 and has an
endowmentA financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution, usually with the stipulation that it be invested, and the principal remain intact in perpetuity or for a defined time period...
of $115 million.
History
The
Troy Female Seminary was founded by
Emma (Hart) WillardEmma Willard was an American women's rights advocate and the pioneer who founded the first women's school of higher education....
in 1821 in
Troy, New YorkTroy is a city in New York, U.S., and the county seat of Rensselaer County. As of the 2000 census, the population was 49,170. Troy's motto is Ilium fuit, Troja est, which means "Ilium was, Troy is."...
. Prior to its founding women were generally excluded from being able to attend college. The schools that were open to them taught subjects that were deemed appropriate for the women of the time. Hart opened the Middlebury Female Seminary in her home in attempt to try to further the education of women. In 1818 she sent a plan titled
Plan for Improving Female Education for a female seminary to Governor
DeWitt ClintonDeWitt Clinton was an early American politician who served as United States Senator and Governor of New York. In this last capacity he was largely responsible for the construction of the Erie Canal...
of
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. The legislature rejected the proposal, but the city of Troy's Common Council raised $4,000 to purchase school buildings, and the Troy Female Seminary was created. The school was immediately successful. Willard remained the head of the seminary until 1838. In 1895, the school was renamed Emma Willard School. In 1910, a new campus was built for the school through the donations of
Olivia Slocum Sage Olivia Slocum Sage was an American philanthropist. Upon the death of her husband she received a fortune estimated at more than $50,000,000, to be used as she saw fit...
, an alumna: in 1916, the old campus became
Russell Sage CollegeRussell Sage College is a women's college located in Troy, New York, approximately north of New York City in the Capital District. It is one of the three colleges that make up The Sage Colleges...
.
Since 1814, Emma Willard School has been one of the nation's leading college preparatory boarding and day schools for young women. Known for its academic rigor, the school promotes intellectual curiosity and disciplined study habits through a challenging curriculum distinguished by a wide array of advanced placement courses and electives. It also promotes active involvement in the life of the campus and off-campus communities through a co-curricular program. The school's remarkable physical plant is listed on the
National Register of Historic PlacesThe National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
and provides a beautiful yet state-of-the-art setting for learning and living. Throughout its history, Emma Willard has been committed to enrolling a diverse student body from the
Capital RegionThe Capital District is a region in upstate New York that generally refers to the four counties surrounding Albany, the capital of the state: Albany County, Schenectady County, Rensselaer County, and Saratoga County...
, across the country, and around the world. This commitment is honored by significant expenditures in financial aid to assist families who might not otherwise have the opportunity to provide an extraordinary
secondary educationSecondary education is the stage of education following primary school. Secondary education is generally the final stage of compulsory education. However, secondary education in some countries includes a period of compulsory and a period of non-compulsory education. The next stage of education is...
for their daughters.
Academic Program
College preparatory with Advanced Placement preparation is offered in all disciplines. Students also may enroll in courses at neighboring
Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteRensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI, is a private research university located in Troy, New York, United States.RPI was founded in 1824 by Stephen Van Rensselaer for the "application of science to the common purposes of life", and is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking...
. Most students take five courses each semester. Classes meet four or five times each week for fifty minutes, although lab sciences, seminars, and AP sections meet for varying lengths of time. An ESL program offered at the intermediate level and above supports a small number of international students for whom
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
is the second language. Core requirements for graduation include a minimum of four units of English; three of history, foreign language, mathematics; two of lab science (one each in
biologyBiology is the natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy...
and
physicsPhysics is a natural science; it is the study of matter and its motion through spacetime and all that derives from these, such as energy and force...
), two in the arts, and one-fourth in health. In the fall of 2005, Emma began its
Physics FirstPhysics First is an educational program that teaches a basic physics course in the ninth grade , rather than the biology course which is more standard in public schools. This course relies on the limited math skills that the students have from from pre-algebra and algebra I...
program for all incoming 9th grade students. All students must fulfill a
community serviceCommunity service is an act by a person that benefits the local community. People become involved in community service for many reasons: for some, serving community is an altruistic act, for others it is a punishment....
requirement and take physical education or its equivalent each semester in the 9th, 10th, and 11th grades (seniors must take at least ten weeks). Class rank is not provided. The grading system uses letter grades with plus and minus notations and number grades with quotation marks. Emma Willard's extensive independent study program, Practicum, allows students to pursue classwork at area colleges, career internships, community service, and individualized athletic training and competition off campus for academic credit. Over one-third of the students participate in Practicum each year.
Student Body
Total enrollment is 309 (203 boarding, 106 day). Current students come from 28 states and 13 foreign countries. Ninety-nine new students enrolled in fall 2007. Of the 309 students, 52 are students of color (according to guidelines established by the National Association of Independent Schools), 56 are international students, and 56 have an alumna or current sister relationship to the school. There are 92 students in the Class of 2008.
Campus
Emma Willard's campus on Mount Ida, above the City of
Troy, NYTroy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer...
, contains 30 buildings. The three oldest buildings, all of collegiate Tudor Gothic style, include a cathedral-like reading room, classrooms, offices, a main auditorium, a dance studio, a lab theater, three residence halls, two dining facilities, a student center, and a chapel. The art, music, and library complex opened in 1967. The library holds more than 32,000 volumes and 77 periodical subscriptions. Seven online databases with full text augment the journal collection. The collection also includes 196
CDs-Computing and electronics:* Cadence Design Systems, an American company producing Electronic Design Automation software* Cockpit display system, in Avionics, is the Human Machine Interface by which aircrew manage the modern Glass cockpit...
, a sizable art and architecture slide collection and the archives, which include 19th-century photographs and manuscripts and some medieval manuscripts. Athletic facilities include a gymnasium with two basketball/volleyball/ indoor tennis courts, full facilities for fitness training and aerobic dance, a weight room, an aquatics center housing a competition-size pool, three large playing fields, and an all-weather track. The three-story Hunter Science Center houses state of the art laboratories and teaching facilities for chemistry, biology, physics, and mathematics. The campus is famous not only for its gothic beauty but for its system of interconnecting underground tunnels. Approximately 75 percent of the faculty reside on campus in houses and apartments provided by the school.
Athletics and Physical Education
Emma Willard has eleven interscholastic sports teams, and they are as follows: field hockey, soccer, volleyball, tennis, cross country, swimming, basketball, lacrosse, softball, crew, and track. There are currently (2007) 29 athletics coaches and personnel at Emma Willard. Among facilities are: a pool, weight room, aerobics studio, two athletics fields, a state of the art track, eight tennis courts, and woodlands running paths. Physical education at Emma Willard is a part of every student's curriculum, and sports count as part of this program.
Affiliations
Emma Willard School is a member of the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools, The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS), the
New York State Association of Independent SchoolsThe New York State Association of Independent Schools , founded in 1947, is an association of some 180 independent schools, ranging from nursery to high schools. In 2005, its member schools had approximately 65,000 students...
, and the
National Association of Independent SchoolsThe National Association of Independent Schools , governed by a board of trustees and staffed by approximately 45 individuals, is a U.S.-based membership organization and the national voice of independent education...
.
Statistics
- Of the 315 applicants for fall 2005, 177 (56%) were offered admission and 100 enrolled.
- Emma Willard's annual operating budget
A budget is generally a list of all planned expenses and revenues. It is a plan for saving and spending. A budget is an important concept in microeconomics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs between two or more goods...
in 2004–2005 was $13,591,500. Fifty-five percent of operating revenues came from tuition and fees and endowed scholarships, 20% came from the endowment ($91 million), 11% came from annual giving ($1.5 million), and 14% came from all other sources.
- A financial aid budget of $2,114,542 enables 131 students (41%) to receive awards ranging from $1,000 to $33,750. The average grant is $16,880. The average award for boarding students is $21,900; the average for day students is $9,400. Eleven students received merit scholarships. Ninety-eight percent of grant dollars is awarded on the basis of need and 2% is given on the basis of academic merit or special talent.
- There are 7,302 alumnae.
Traditions
- Senior Triangle - a large triangle of grass in inner campus where only seniors and alumnae are permitted to walk. Breaking this rule results in "carding."
- Carding - a ceremony carried out by a group of seniors known as the "carding committee" in which underclasswomen who have stepped on the triangle are embarrassed in some silly way.
- Eventide - a ceremony during which the choir sings and candles are placed all around the senior triangle.
- Revels - an elaborate, highly anticipated play performed each year by the senior class. The cast list is confidential and the parts are unknown until you see the performance.
- Revelizing - when the un-informed guess which part each senior will be in the performance of Revels
Additional Items of Note
- The School was used as a filming location for the films The Emperor's Club
The Emperor's Club is a 2002 film that tells the story of a prep school teacher and his students. Based on Ethan Canin's short story "The Palace Thief," the film is directed by Michael Hoffman and stars Kevin Kline. The movie is set at a fictional boys' prep school, St. Benedict's Academy, located...
(as St. Benedict's Academy) and Scent of a WomanScent of a Woman is a 1992 film which tells the story of a preparatory school student who takes a job as an assistant to an irascible, blind, medically retired Army officer. It stars Al Pacino, Chris O'Donnell, James Rebhorn, Gabrielle Anwar, and Philip Seymour Hoffman...
(as Baird School). In both of these films, the school is portrayed as an all-boys school.
- EWS was "the first school in the country to provide girls the same educational opportunities given to boys" http://www.emmawillard.org/about/history/index.php. "Subjects included reading, writing, grammar, arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, geometry, astronomy, botany, natural philosophy, zoology, geology, mineralogy, chemistry, physiology, history, geography, maps, the globe, Greek and Higher mathematics as well as such women's finishing schools' staples as drawing, dancing, painting, French, Italian, Spanish, and German" http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/whm2001/willard1.html.
- Emma Willard School served as the basis for a study of adolescent women conducted by Carol Gilligan
Carol Gilligan is an American feminist, ethicist, and psychologist best known for her work with and against Lawrence Kohlberg on ethical community and ethical relationships, and certain subject-object problems in ethics. She is currently a Professor at New York University and a Visiting Professor...
. Gilligan's resulting book, Making Connections: The Relational Worlds of Adolescent Girls at Emma Willard School, was published in 1990 by Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
Press. Trudy Hanmer, the current Associate Head of School and former Interim Head of School, was one of the book's editors.
Notable Alumnae
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an American social activist abolitionist, and leading figure of the early woman's movement...
: Early member of the suffrage movement.
- Justine Johnstone
Justine Johnstone was an American stage and silent screen actress who retired to become a pathologist and expert on syphilis. She also was part of the team that developed the modern intravenous drip technique....
: Broadway and silent movie star.
- Sara Lee Schupf : Namesake of Sara Lee baked goods.
- Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou and, excluding a 15 year hiatus, has appeared in films ever since. She has won two Academy Awards and received several...
: Actress
- Lydia Martin Smith : Hotelier
- Kirsten Gillibrand
Kirsten Elizabeth Rutnik Gillibrand , born December 9, 1966 is an American politician, a member of the Democratic Party, and the junior United States Senator from New York. She was elected twice to the United States House of Representatives, representing New York's 20th congressional district from...
: United States Senator from New York