Dear St. E’s Community,
Happy March and Women’s History Month! As we charge forward through a mix of cold and snowy days and warm, sunny ones, there is so much ahead to look forward to, but for a few moments, I’d like to look back in time.
We know it better as Women’s Herstory Month, and the 2023 theme for this month-long celebration is "Celebrating Women Who Tell our Stories,” which recognizes the importance of women's voices in shaping our history and shared narratives. In light of this theme, I figured it would be worthwhile to share with you all a particularly special story of my own.
I’d like to take you back to the United States in 1967, when my mother — only 17 at the time — arrived in this country from Nicaragua. She taught herself English by reading Shakespeare, eventually beginning work as a lead administrative assistant for some of the top administrators for the Southern African region at the World Bank; it was a job she loved and ended up holding for nearly 40 years.
The reason she wanted to work for the World Bank was that she had seen first-hand what war does to a country, and she wanted to work for an organization that was helping countries rebuild their financial systems. In other words, my mom wanted to work on solutions to help empower people on both an institutional level as well as on the ground.
When I spoke to my mom about her early days in the U.S. and the obstacles she faced, she’d forgotten about most of them because that's the kind of woman my mom is. She overlooked the fact that she couldn't pursue a degree at most Ivy League schools, get a credit card in her own name (my father had to co-sign), take legal action against workplace sexual harassment, obtain health insurance at the same monetary rate as a man, or have her job protected when she was pregnant with me.
And in one generation, those obstacles cease to exist. Or at least, they are no longer legally allowed. By the time I was able to hold this position at St. Elizabeth’s, women — hardworking, dedicated, and ambitious women — had fought for the rights of women everywhere to overcome those obstacles and to not only be protected but empowered.
My mother has been my biggest inspiration, from her very humble beginnings to me now serving as Head of School at St. E's as well as leading an all-female cohort of aspiring heads of school as a faculty member of NAIS' Institute for Aspiring Heads. I have grown up learning and watching with my own eyes that there is tremendous power in education and in women's determination.
Being at St. Elizabeth's, one of our greatest and most difficult calls to action is to notice obstacles of injustice and to then thoughtfully lay out a plan for their removal. However, the solution is not always clear; the hows and whys and risks and consequences are all crucial factors we have to consider in the process.
That is the real work. And to prepare our students for a lifetime of real work — of learning, listening, asking questions, refining one's thinking, and then taking action — we give them multiple opportunities to work in small groups, to identify and discuss problems relevant to them, and to disagree (often, and respectfully). Starting in kindergarten, our students begin the skill of perspective taking and paraphrasing others’ points of view. By eighth grade, students learn strategies like validating, bridging (building off what someone has said and connecting it to one's idea), and finding common ground.
At St. E's, we recognize that this generation of students has and will likely have obstacles and problems that today’s adults will be unable to solve for them. But if we can teach students to really see and hear one another and to emphasize that until everyone is lifted up, no one is, we will have done our part for human history.
That sort of “teaching for the future” would also not be possible without the women (and I include folks who identify as women here, too) of St. E’s. From the classroom to the front office, we are lucky to have many women dedicating themselves to making a positive impact on the lives of our students. Through their passion for teaching, mentorship, and leadership, they’ve inspired countless students to pursue their dreams and achieve their goals.
So as we celebrate Women’s Herstory Month, we will continue to encourage our students to learn more about the history of women’s rights, notable women, and women’s voices throughout history. But we are also encouraging them to look around at their immediate communities for the women in their lives who inspire them and are working hard, as well as at the future generations of women who will come after us, whom we have to continue that work for.
I continue to be inspired each and every day by the resilience of my mother, the dedication of our St. E’s staculty, the creativity, innovation, and empathy of our students, and by all the women who worked hard and sacrificed so that I may be here with you all today. It’s truly an honor for me to be surrounded by so many incredible, changemaking women. And with that, I am wishing you a curious, contemplative, and appreciative Women’s Herstory Month.
Best foot forward,
Adriana Murphy
Head of School