Head of School

I am pleased to introduce this morning’s Commencement speaker, for she is not only a former colleague of mine but also a dear friend. She is passionate. She is intense. She is a warm demander. She is kind. She is funny. She is the embodiment of what Princeton Professor Maria DiBattista calls a “fast-talking dame:” one in a long line throughout history of distinguished and dazzling women who are known for being sharp-witted and quick on the uptake, with never a downbeat. She always seems to know what to say and when to say it. She is joyous. She is on the move. She is a force of nature. She is a leader. She is Courtney Banghart.

“Stressed out” is a tired expression in contemporary culture, and it can be easy to dismiss as a mundane complaint or mere conversation filler. But its overuse masks the real and troubling role that stress too often plays in school life today, particularly in the lives of high school students.

When people ask me what makes Hewitt so special, I often point to our long-held community value of being there for one another. This cultural value is deep in the school’s very roots and soil. Our founder Caroline Hewitt said, “It is the touch of life upon life that matters most in a school.” Almost 100 years later, though there is much that our founder would not recognize, Caroline Hewitt’s central vision lives on in a way that would make her proud. At Hewitt, we show up for each other in caring and compassionate ways so that we can be the kind of people others can count on.

The Hewitt community is committed to the lifelong practice of preparing ourselves to connect meaningfully with others in order to make the world a better place. And when I see our community spread kindness, compassion, and empathy to others, when I see us engage in civil discourse around difficult topics, when I see us learn about each other’s cultures and traditions, I see Hewitt at its best.

At Hewitt, we work day in and day out to ensure that our girls and young women access and use their voices, and it is well known that graduates of girls' schools are significantly more likely to run for student government on college campuses and beyond. In yesterday’s midterm elections, our nation felt just a bit more like Hewitt, as women shattered records of every kind.

At Hewitt, we believe in the power of taking advantage of opportunities for girls and young women to engage in developmentally-appropriate discourse and to develop critical thinking skills about societal structures and how those structures inform the way each of us shows up as members of this community. Hewitt faculty respond to genuine student inquiry and take advantage of teachable moments in a way that teaches students how to think, not what to think.

As we take the first steps into the school year together, let us all try to model living in the present, to do more learning and less judging, and to make the small, everyday moments count. Let us join with our girls and young women as they explore what it means to be fully present, mindful, and open in their pursuits and their relationships. Let us together as one school community harness the truly life-changing power of presence.

Everywhere I look, I see examples of the expansive creativity, distributed leadership, and collective commitment of Hewitt’s teachers to advance girls’ learning, to guide students to discover their strengths so they can create fulfilling paths forward, and to interrogate, resist, and ultimately redress practices that unintentionally train students for a world that no longer exists. To my mind, there is nothing more central to our mission than this.

This year’s Commencement speaker exemplifies Hewitt as an institution that calls forth the best version of people. For over two decades, Nancy Gallin has made an indelible mark on countless Hewitt students, alumnae, and families. To watch Nancy in the classroom is to watch a historian who disturbs the untroubled waters of history and moves her students to think differently. 

If we dig down into Hewitt’s foundational soil, empathy is there at the root. Empathy matters because we believe that school should liberate students to do something in this world that is meaningful not only for themselves but also for others—and that the empathy built through the “other-orientation” of students’ pursuits is vitally important for cultivating a sense of meaning and purpose in life.