Making a Difference in education
Posted: Friday, May 09, 2008 4:10 PM by Sam Singal
By Trudy Hall, Headmaster of the Emma Willard School
Editors Note: Shelby Davis, featured in Rehema Ellis' segment tonight, began his investment crusade by providing scholarships for international boarding schools and American universities. In tonight's piece, we did not have time to share Mr. Davis' newest venture, an effort to diversify American boarding schools. Each participating school has been asked to design their own program to recruit the most promising need-based students representing new dimensions of international diversity.
Upon graduation, this new branch of Davis International Scholars will be eligible for continued scholarship support if they are accepted into a participating college.
Pilot programs will begin at 5 select boarding schools this fall: Emma Willard, Phillips Academy, Lawrenceville, Taft, and Westminster.
Trudy Hall, head of Emma Willard, reflects on her goals for the unique program.
Making a difference. Altogether a good thing. I think we might agree, however, that the Davis idea of making a difference through scholarships is to do so on a grand scale; indeed, a global scale. It is an incredible notion really: the way to make a global difference just might be through one relationship at a time. The Davis family in their remarkably visionary way is betting on this concept in new ways even as the NBC story airs. They are pushing the needle of cross-cultural influence ever deeper into the core of American culture through a fascinating partnership with five American high schools.
Emma Willard School in Troy, New York has the good fortune to be one of those partners. For nearly two hundred years, amazing girls from around the world have come together to create an educational community, and as they have done so, their lives are transformed in remarkable ways. “Empower a girl. Transform the world,” we are fond of saying. And the Davis family is holding us accountable as they extend their visionary philanthropy to include the secondary school experience.
We want nothing less than for our students to thrive and to lead in this global environment, so we must jostle them out of their cultural comfort zones. Each girl, no matter what country she calls home, needs to understand that she cannot know the challenges she will face, she will not possess all the answers, and the only way she can create a meaningful life is to become interdependent. She will need to share, across cultures with people who are very different from her, the questions, the knowledge, the energy, the character, and the commitment she brings to making the world better.
I have become intrigued with how to get this done right. If we were to “go global,” how could we guarantee transformational cross-cultural experiences? What role does technology play in such a dynamic environment? Intellectual rigor must continue to be at the heart of such an undertaking, and there must be agreement on core competencies. Yet beyond these essentials, imagine what the future holds. I am.
Fortunately, Emma Willard has a head start. Already our students hail from 20 countries. The recently announced Davis Scholars program allows us to provide scholarships to talented and motivated girls from around the world, thereby strengthening the diversity of our student body even further. But what is the best way to promote lasting global awareness? And how can we leverage such opportunities so that those around the world with whom our girls connect will benefit and then some?
I want to take the Emma Willard experience global. I am committed to making cross-cultural awareness an essential element of every girl’s experience here so that her mind opens and her passion to be a global citizen is powerful. We cannot do this alone. We need ideas, information, conversation, partnerships, and resources. If this blog inspires you to respond, offer a suggestion, or enter the dialogue about what it means to “go global,” I am ready to hear your thoughts. In fact, I’m eager to gather as many ideas as possible. Help us make a difference, won’t you?
