About Hewitt

In preparation for our 100th anniversary in September 2020, Hewitt launched a new strategic vision that will help girls and young women prepare for college, the workforce, and a life of meaning and purpose.

Our strategic vision was inspired by Hewitt girls and young women. In this video, Hewitt students describe how hands-on, real-world, immersive learning helps them develop their voices and their leadership capacity.

In September 2020, Hewitt will mark its 100th anniversary. Hewitt has evolved from its origins into a forward-thinking school with a defining commitment to educating girls and young women to effect positive change in our world.

Being a student on the Strategic Visioning Steering Committee has been a rich and rewarding experience because I had the opportunity to learn about the school from a variety of perspectives and understand how the different roles collaborate to create the Hewitt I know.

Hewitt has been awarded a $250,000 Educational Leadership Grant from The Edward E. Ford Foundation. The Foundation supports schools that serve diverse populations, and that encourage bold, new ideas that will catalyze change beyond their individual institutions. Their endorsement confirms Hewitt’s position as a thought leader and model of best practice among independent schools in the country.

Effective feedback creates space for students to practice and explore different solutions and strategies so that they can transfer what they have learned to new contexts. At Hewitt, we are implementing research-based strategies for delivering frequent, specific, and actionable feedback that teaches our students the habits of mind necessary to respond to feedback with readiness and purpose.

We are dedicated to providing students with consistent and individualized feedback not only because it ultimately improves their outcomes on essays and exams, but also because the ability to process ongoing feedback and work iteratively toward larger goals will be critical to their success beyond Hewitt.

We are delighted to announce that Sarah Odell will be Hewitt’s inaugural learning and innovation researcher. This new position will play an essential role in the research and design of an ethical leadership program for young women that centers equity, sustainability, and joy, and that is rooted in transdisciplinary, real-world learning.

By incorporating social-emotional learning standards into English courses, teachers are building a classroom culture that prepares students to apply their developing emotional intelligence to the academic, interpersonal, and, eventually, professional areas of their lives. 

At Hewitt, our mission—to inspire girls and young women to become game changers and ethical leaders who forge an equitable, sustainable, and joyous future—informs our commitment to designing learning experiences that reflect the complexity of the world in which we live.

Featuring open-concept collaboration studio and classroom spaces amid Downtown Manhattan’s vibrant mix of for-profit and nonprofit businesses and community organizations, Hewitt Downtown will offer every Hewitt student immersive, real-world learning and leadership development. 

Hewitt high school students are helping the Billion Oyster Project solve the local, real-world challenge of regenerating New York Harbor's oyster reefs. As community scientists, these students conduct hands-on field research and send valuable data back to the Billion Oyster Project. 

During their week-long minimester, eighth graders investigated the lasting impacts of certain kinds of waste on our environment and researched the power of community activism. Students applied what they learned as they collaborated on ways to address the real-world issue of sustainable consumption at Hewitt.

After investigating water pollution through the lenses of equity and social justice, civic engagement, and sustainable engineering, fifth grade change-makers proposed ways for members of the Hewitt community to reduce their unsustainable impacts on freshwater systems. 

In this video interview, three sophomores describe their award-winning Early Entrepreneurs program and reflect on the inspiration behind their idea, the process of launching their program, and the sense of accomplishment they feel from making an impact on their school community.

As they wrestled with the real-world question, “What can Hewitt students do to promote a sustainable and accessible transportation system in New York City?” sixth graders engaged with local experts to better understand the challenges and benefits of creating resilient and inclusive transportation systems. 

First grade engineers conducted field research in Central Park to understand how to make playgrounds more accessible to people with different physical abilities. They then used what they had learned to design scaled versions of inclusive playground equipment such as slides, swings, and monkey bars.

During their minimester, seventh graders were guided by the central question, “Whose voices are heard; whose voices are not?” As they conducted field research, historical investigations, and interviews, students reflected on how different voices have been amplified or quieted throughout history. 

Hewitt students are immersed in learning experiences that engage them in understanding the nature of systemic problems and in problem solving for relevant real-world challenges in New York City and globally.

Through place-based learning experiences, students develop confidence and agency, break out of their normal routine, expand their perspectives, and gain hands-on understanding of how they can contribute to their local communities now.

Hewitt teachers use research-backed strategies to bolster every girl’s capacity to overcome both systemic and individual barriers to leadership on her college campus, in her career, and in her life.