Sam ’22 and 凡尔 ’71 share their love of MHS

1月19日, 2021, Sam Kangethe, 22年, 视野 intern in the Miss Hall’s office of marketing and communications, sat down with 凡尔 Guthrie ’71 to talk by Zoom. Curious about 凡尔’s experience as a student at MHS in the late ’60s and early ’70s and her pathway to becoming a Trustee and beyond, Sam brought a set of probing questions for the first in a series of intergenerational conversations that make true blue (and gold!)连接.

This conversation is being shared during the launch of the Legacy Trustees, a new affinity group of former trustees of Miss Hall’s School.

The full video of their conversation is below.

凡尔: I grew up in the segregated South, in a small rural town in North Carolina. My freshman year of high school I rode a bus to the black school 30 miles from home. 在我大二的时候, 学校被整合了, and I was one of a few black students to go to the nearby white school. It was a lot of change, and people were not really ready for it. My parents 想要ed us to have more opportunities than they did, 他们希望这能带来好处, 但这并不是一次友好的经历.

That was kind of my defining moment for me, because I knew how to be strong. I knew I had to show them that I was capable, 我可以成为一个成功的故事, even without the help that others were receiving.

I buckled down and worked very hard on my studies. My mother had a friend who told her about “A Better Chance” (ABC), a program that placed minority students in New England prep schools, 哪个国家的多样性很少. The way it worked was that you applied to the program, and then the schools that were participating chose the students.

So, I like to say that I found Miss Hall’s but Miss Hall’s found me, too.  Because I went looking, but they picked me. 然后，我又成了积分器. 被硬化, 失望, 也被我之前的经历伤害了, 我进来的时候想, 我不知道该期待什么, 但这是一个很好的机会. And, my mother always said, “You never turn down a good opportunity, you at least try it out. 没有什么比失败更能打败尝试.“这就是我去澳门威利斯网站家的旅程. 这是我走向世界的门票.  It opened up so many possibilities for me.

凡尔这么多的第一次! Flying on an airplane for the first time to get to Miss Hall’s. Leaving my family pod and learning who I was as an individual, not somebody’s sister. Going to the movies for the first time. Just having a white roommate and knowing that I could share the space and feel like we were equal. 那真的是巨大的.

One of my favorite things that totally opened my eyes was going to the ballet with Mrs. 卡利什. I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life.  我真的哭了! 我不知道人们可以这么做. And so, for the rest of my life, I have been a huge ballet supporter and my daughters took classes.

I remember going into New York City for the first time and seeing a real city, 去一家真正的餐厅. 真的很神奇.

Many of the girls had never had any social interaction with black kids. It was really a learning process for both sides — for us as well as for them.

凡尔: For me, it was a chance to get to know who I was. I had a large family with brothers, and in the South, the boys were always prized a bit more.

At a girls’ school, it’s like, “Who is going to be President? 谁将担任财务主管? 谁来管理这个委员会?“而且，你是主导者!

So, you are allowed to develop to your fullest potential without having that male counterpart, 哪一点有时会给你蒙上阴影.

凡尔: The Trustees and the Head of School have a beautiful partnership, a partnership that is necessary and essential to the health and growth and well-being of the School. Being a Trustee taught me that no matter how fabulous a Head of School might be, she still needs that Board with her to make things come to be. The work is hard, but I think the work is important.

凡尔当我作为一名学生来到这里时, the School was going through a transition because a lot of the girls were not terribly happy, 坦率地. 他们是 使 to go to Miss Hall’s by their parents. In some cases, it was a family tradition. A lot of the girls felt that their parents put them there because they didn’t 想要 to be bothered with them. One good thing about that was that once the girls came to Miss Hall’s, they really bonded with each other in a very healthy way and they 使 new family. 我很高兴能在那里.

But now, students come to Miss Hall’s because they 想要 去那里. They are making the choice and driving the decision, not their parents. That was very healthy and exciting for me to realize.

Also, when I was there, diversity meant me and one other black girl from West Virginia. 我们做到了!  Now, I see so many students from all over the world, which is amazing.