A Message from the Head
A school year has its own predictable cycle. Collectively, we take a deep breath at the beginning of the year and engage in a fast and furious dash to winter break for a period of rest and rejuvenation well deserved.
Upon returning to campus, it is apparent that not everyone in our community had the benefit of a period of respite. Enormous progress has been made in the ongoing construction of the LEED-certified Upper School science building. Our academic momentum came to a pause, but the work of Novus Construction did not. They advanced significantly, completing the underground electrical and plumbing systems. Just this Wednesday, steel beams began to rise, giving shape to a new building and signifying a new era at Westridge School.
Over the holiday, I visited family in England and spent a day exploring the Science Museum in London. A central focus of the museum’s most current exhibition is imagining the exciting futures in store for scientists, engineers, and designers. Focal points included communications and collaboration, critical thinking, the cosmos, and climate change. I could not help but think of Westridge as I toured each section of this exhibit, and the ways in which our program allows students to study these very topics and develop these specific skills.
Westridge’s science program is designed to follow a common curricular strand from 4th through 12th grade. This is one of the many benefits of a three-division school; what is introduced in Lower School is thoughtfully built upon in Middle School and explored in greater detail and honed in Upper School. Westridge’s continuum of education provides students with a longitudinal perspective of learning, encouraging them to build strong associations and remain better engaged with the material. The new building, paired with an already outstanding science curriculum designed to build excitement and enthusiasm for the sciences from one division to the next, will offer girls ways to expand their horizons in ways that they can only now imagine.
Completion of the science building signifies a transition and advantage for all divisions. With the Upper School science faculty and classes moving in fall 2010, the Middle School will then occupy the Seeley G. Mudd Science Building. Mudd will become a building dedicated to the Middle School, both for classroom use and as a general gathering spot to support student interaction with faculty and each other. The central space in the building, known as Mudd Pit, will provide Middle School girls with a place to congregate, study, and visit. As a result, Middle School will have a place to call its own, subsequently allowing Lower School more room to grow and play.
Fundraising efforts are ongoing, with $2.75 million remaining to be raised of the $11 million capital campaign goal. As parents, alumnae, grandparents, alumnae parents, and friends of the school, you are an instrumental part of the Westridge community and our greatest resource. In one way or another, you have experienced how large an impact Westridge can have on the lives of its students and how well it benefits their futures.
We’ve been quiet in our efforts to raise the dollars needed, but as the months roll along, you will be hearing more. Your support and contributions are critical, and you will be contacted at some point in the school year or coming summer. In the meantime, stay abreast as construction progresses. Take a virtual 3D tour of what the building will look like. Watch a video that highlights how girls thrive in the sciences at Westridge. Learn about the building’s state-of-the-art technology, the features in the intentional design of each indoor and outdoor space, and, while you’re there, find out how you can have your family’s name attached to one of these remarkable building elements. All this can be found online at www.westridge.org/science_building.html.
History was made in 2009 as the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to three American genetic researchers, two of whom were women. Never in the 108-year history of the Nobel Prize for medicine has more than one woman in a single year been awarded the honor – until now. One of the recipients, Elizabeth Blackburn, noted two distinct factors that guided her science pursuits. One was having parents who were both physicians, demonstrating that women and men could be equally successful in their careers. The other was her education at an all-girls’ school. Blackburn describes her experience in a single-sex setting as a “...liberating environment” and a place where “you could be an academic girl, and there was no social pressure on you not to be.”
Congruently, in support of women in science, 2009 proved to be significant as Westridge took a step closer to realizing a notable vision, a decade in the making. Together, we look forward to another remarkable year and the completion of this vision: an environmentally sustainable Upper School science facility that will match an already exceptional program where girls have the opportunity to do science, not just study it. As we move into our centennial, the most environmentally significant building on this beautiful campus will also hold great symbolism for Westridge’s evolving role in the world.
- Elizabeth J. McGregor, Head of School