Alumna Perspective

What factors influenced your decision to send your daughters to St. Catherine’s?
When our older daughter, who is now in college, was applying to kindergarten programs in the area, we were not sure whether we wanted the single-sex or the coeducational experience for her. We looked at two other private schools, both coed, one of which was in the same price range and the other of which was less expensive. We also looked at the magnet public school that is in our neighborhood. Around that time I went to a daylong seminar that focused on the benefits of single-sex education for girls. As an alumna of St. Catherine’s I have to admit to a bias in that direction, but I had gone there for three years as a boarder and was not sure about the idea of a 13- or 14-year single-sex experience. After visiting the schools several times and reviewing the information we received from them, we ultimately decided that the physical plant, technological offerings, and some of the other opportunities offered by the more expensive schools were worth the extra expense, and we decided that we should at least start with the single-sex school, recognizing that we could change to another school later if that appeared to be a good idea.

As it turned out, leaving St. Catherine’s never appeared to be a good idea, and our daughter stayed all 13 years. We hadn’t been particularly aware of it initially, but after St. Catherine’s girls reach Upper School, the relationship with St. Christopher’s School offers the benefits of a coeducational experience (competing with boys, and working with them in extracurricular activities, and getting to know them as friends) in addition to those of a single-sex school (each school has its own leadership positions, and girls feel comfortable singing and dancing together and acting silly without worrying about what boys may think). Moreover, so many of our daughter’s teachers over the years were truly extraordinary, and the relationships she developed with some of them were so important in her development, that I have a hard time imagining her having gone anywhere else.

For our younger daughter, now in seventh grade, we applied only to St. Catherine’s. As a preschooler it never occurred to her that she might go anywhere other than where her sister was, and we saw no reason to raise the issue. She too has benefitted from a series of excellent and beloved teachers, and even in Middle School (rather a difficult age, in my opinion) she seems to be enjoying life as she develops interests and skills that should serve her well in the future.

In what ways have your daughters felt embraced by the St. Catherine’s community?
One of the ways many girls develop a sense of community at St. Catherine’s is through their participation in sports and the arts. Our older daughter was involved in a few seasons’ worth of sports, but that was not an area of particular interest to her, and she found her home in the school theater, a coeducational opportunity aptly named “Ampersand” for the conjunction of St. Catherine’s & St. Christopher’s. She also delighted in Model Judiciary and a robotics team, both of which are all-girls activities. Our younger daughter appears to be more sports-oriented, and the camaraderie of the teams and the enthusiasm of the coaches are a source of joy for her. She has also participated since second grade in the school’s joint Strings program with St. Christopher’s, an activity she loves even more than she hates the practice it requires.

Another significant source of community spirit is participation in community service activities. Many girls at every age level help develop and work on all sorts of projects, some of which involve fundraising, and others of which are more hands-on. Our older daughter got a lot of fundraising and team-building experience working on a Habitat for Humanity house that was a St. Catherine’s all-school project several years ago. In a fundraising activity sponsored a couple of years ago by the Middle School in conjunction with the American Heart Association, our younger daughter played basketball and was delighted to win a Hoops for Hearts t-shirt as the event’s top fundraiser. Trips out of town and abroad, many of which have a community service component as well as an educational purpose, provide another bonding experience for girls of all ages, and our girls have found them very valuable.

My suggestion to families looking at independent schools is to visit every school they think they might consider, and to visit more than once. If finances are an issue, they should ask about the availability of full or partial scholarships. They should talk to parents, and when possible to students, about how they feel about the teachers, the range of activities available, the level of technology available, and the extent to which there are enough different clusters of girls with various interests in any given age group so that each girl can find people with whom she is comfortable being herself.

St. Catherine’s has worked hard over the years to offer an increasingly diverse and inclusive environment for the benefit of all of its girls. Having been involved with several school committees that have done work in this area, I have seen the longevity and the sincerity of the school’s effort. Occasionally less effective than hoped, occasionally misunderstood, and occasionally underappreciated, the endeavor is ongoing, and has many excited and enthusiastic proponents and participants. The curriculum from Junior Kindergarten all the way up has been infused with information relating to a multitude of countries and cultures, and the teachers teach the girls to look at the world from a variety of perspectives. Chapel programs reinforce the importance of kindness, inclusiveness, and listening respectfully to different viewpoints. There has been an increased presence of students and faculty of color on campus in recent years. The school actively seeks new students from a variety of backgrounds and from areas of Richmond outside of its traditional areas of concentration. I hope that the ultimate result will be a school in which each girl feels very comfortable surrounded by girls from various different cultures and backgrounds, all of whom feel equally at home at St. Catherine’s.