Hewitt News

We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Jennifer Zaccara as The Hewitt School’s ninth head of school. Following the search committee’s recommendation, the Board of Trustees voted unanimously to approve Jennifer’s appointment. She will begin her tenure at Hewitt in July 2025. Click here to read the announcement of Jennifer’s appointment.
 
Jennifer shares, “I know and understand that educating girls lifts up, builds, and strengthens communities, and I am honored to step into the role of head of school at The Hewitt School. I look forward to sharing my scholarly and programmatic passions for academic excellence and entrepreneurship with the Hewitt community, and to working with Hewitt students, faculty, staff, families, alumnae, and friends to nurture the culture of humanity and connection for which Hewitt is known. True to its mission, Hewitt inspires girls and young women to become game changers and ethical leaders who forge an equitable, sustainable, and joyous future, and I am excited to be joining a school where students can enjoy a K-12 education that is both academically rigorous and emotionally supportive.”
 
Highlights from Jennifer’s Tenure at Vermont Academy
Jennifer comes to Hewitt from Vermont Academy, where she has served as head of school since 2017. Under her leadership, Vermont Academy has increased enrollment, strengthened college acceptances, and developed dynamic academic programs and partnerships. Highlights from Jennifer’s tenure at the school include:

• Developing an alumni mentoring program around entrepreneurship, including a student apprenticeship/internship program and a network to connect alumni and students around careers
• Supporting the launch of a student-led debate program as well as public speaking and conflict negotiation units and courses for students to develop cultural competency, and to prepare for problem solving and collaboration
• Building the MAPS™(My Action Plan for Success) program to help students determine and use their strengths to develop strategies to reach their goals and to benchmark their successes and struggles in a portfolio of their work
• Developing signature programs around executive functioning skills, place-based learning and outdoor programming, entrepreneurship, and soccer and skiing immersion
• Defining Vermont Academy as a school that prepares students for solving problems and engaging in conflict negotiation in a world of diverse thinkers and diverse opinions
• Overseeing the merger/acquisition of Mt. Snow Academy in West Dover, VT, to create Vermont Academy at Mt. Snow, which functions as a competitive ski academy for day and boarding students
• Establishing a satellite school with partner Liceo Europeo in Madrid, Spain

Prior to her headship at Vermont Academy, Jennifer was associate head of school at The Nightingale-Bamford School in New York City. In this role, she served as a key member of the leadership team representing the school’s academic life and initiatives. At Nightingale-Bamford, Jennifer was responsible for faculty hiring, evaluation, and professional development and oversaw and helped to create K-12 curricula. Jennifer has also served as associate dean of faculty at The Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut, and began her career teaching English at several distinguished independent schools (including Convent of the Sacred Heart in Greenwich, CT and The Winsor School in Boston, MA) and in higher education. 
 
Get to Know Jennifer as a Leader and Educator
To help our community get to know Jennifer, we are pleased to share her responses to three frequently asked questions from prospective parents and guardians. 
 
1. What are the top challenges girls’ schools are facing right now when it comes to educating students (and their parents!)?
Some of the most significant challenges facing girls’ schools today have to do with habits around cell phone use, including compulsively looking at social media and taking selfies, the temptation to create a digital identity that ultimately does not feel authentic, and the propensity to look at AI as a quick solution to more genuine inquiry. Technology can be an exciting tool to enhance learning and, if used properly, to sharpen up thinking. However, social media algorithms also prey on the interests, purchases, and searches of our students, stylizing the viewing experience and further hooking them into an overuse of their cell phones. I am interested in working with Hewitt’s faculty and staff to help students navigate technology and digital information in ways that enhance their learning without alienating them from their own creativity and authenticity.
 
Hewitt already uses research-informed teaching practices to help our girls feel safe, supported, and authentically themselves. For example, being a “phone-free” school helps limit the number of distractions and sources of stress and anxiety students must manage during the day. Additionally, Hewitt’s lower school social-emotional curriculum and middle and upper school advisory programs ensure that all students K-12 are learning how to use technology and social media responsibly. I look forward to working with the thoughtful educators at Hewitt to further the balance between the cautionary use of technology with skills and innovation that build out the girls’ knowledge of how to make technology work for them.
 
2. How does Hewitt help students navigate cliques and foster an environment in which students are supportive, rather than judgmental, of one another?
Our lower school homeroom teachers, middle and upper school advisors and deans, and K-12 counseling team play a valuable role in helping students navigate cliques and find their “real people” who will support their authentic selves and help them to thrive and be confident. Hewitt educators know how to help students build self-knowledge and self-confidence so that they can make good choices about many things in their lives, including their friendships, and seek out supportive peers who are both the same and different from them. 
 
What sets Hewitt apart from other girls’ schools I have experienced is its focus on class size, its distinct system of core values, and its commitment to creating a community that is genuine and authentic. At Hewitt, academic and extracurricular experiences give girls opportunities to learn how to work in teams and enable them to get to know one another in a variety of contexts. Hewitt also works with many visiting research scholars who help educate students, families, and teachers about navigating challenging social dynamics and developing strong, supportive relationships.  
 
One thing that I have tried at my current school is having students take a Strengths Finder test (like the Clifton Strengths Finder 2.0) so that they know their top five strengths and can grow them. This knowledge and self-awareness helps students find common ground with a wide range of peers and develop an understanding of how working in diverse groups brings about the wisdom and learning that will best advance their personal goals and inner wellness.
 
3. Based on what you know about Hewitt right now, what are a few areas of the school that you think can be enhanced?
Enhancing the many strengths of our great school is one of the first things I will look at doing! Hewitt’s academic pillars of presence, empathy, research, and purpose offer continued opportunities to develop curricula and learning opportunities that lead girls — from a young age to young adulthood — toward the maximization of their talents and skills, and toward the development of their leadership capacities. Leadership programming can be both embedded in the existing curriculum and its own developmental path.

I also value experiential learning, and I hope to look at moments in each grade’s curricula that offer opportunities for applied learning and on- and off-campus experiences. These are the things the girls will look forward to each year and that they will remember as highlights of their time at Hewitt.
 
The Stillman Hall library is a gorgeous space, and I hope to work with Hewitt’s leadership team and teachers to enhance it as the heartbeat and center of the school for our K-12 students and families. The library can be a place for digital research, a center of discourse and debate, and home to a speaker series and parent programming!
 
Finally, I know the importance of developing girls’ voices as they grow in their leadership, confidence, and future areas of focus as lifelong learners. I would love to record the girls sharing some of their own stories about their Hewitt experiences to create an archive that grows along with each student. It might be part of an overall Hewitt voice project that is a central feature of leadership development.