Welcome to Bryn Mawr

Maureen E. Walsh

We opened this school year with 711 girls in K-12 and 140 children in our Little School. In early September, we learned that nearly 23% of our senior class has been recognized in the National Merit competition as semifinalists or commended students, more students than at any other local or regional girls’ school. That Bryn Mawr continues to thrive as one of the leading girls schools in the country is due in no small part to the support of our parents, alumnae and friends.

Now in my tenth year as Headmistress, I find that our purpose as a school continues to inspire us, and proves to be as relevant and important as ever. Our students remain at the very heart of our school: their talents and interests drive our program and determine the facilities we need to allow them to flourish in school. Ensuring that we offer the best faculty to teach and guide them continues to be a focus of our institutional efforts.

Recruiting and enrolling students who thrive in a rigorous program is particularly challenging in the current economy, but we are pleased that Bryn Mawr's purpose and approach remains compelling to so many parents who are eager to provide their daughters with this kind of educational opportunity. What we teach and how we guide our students is constantly evaluated, modulated and updated to enable our students to be very well prepared for higher education. It goes without saying that they are ambitious about their college choices and successful in the process. Bryn Mawr girls continue to be highly sought after by the most competitive colleges and universities in the country.

During the last eight years, we have made important improvements to the campus, with the needs of our students at the heart of each project. We were careful to take on these projects only when we could afford them, thereby avoiding the deep debt that so many institutions are burdened with now in a tougher economy. I was so pleased that returning alumnae wondered if the North Building had always been on campus, so well did it match the stonework on the Garrett and Hamilton buildings. Most importantly, the program for Middle and Upper School students has been supported so completely by the building’s design that students can now follow different schedules during the academic day.

Due to the extensive renovation of our Lower School campus, we can now provide spaces for our students and teachers that, like the North Building, are both effective and beautiful. We created a wonderful transition experience for our fifth graders by re-purposing our music and art buildings. This innovation proved so successful that we now have many new students entering Bryn Mawr in fifth grade. Our most recent improvement, the installation of the artificial turf on the Rosabelle Sinclair Field, is another triumph of function and aesthetics.

As the national dialogue on education demonstrates, we are bombarded with new technologies and directions regarding what and how we teach. We continue to talk about this compelling tension between new technologies and our historic devotion to the classical tradition in our curriculum. Technology does not exclude studying Shakespeare and Latin, of course, and there are new methods that can help our students learn and understand better. There is no question that the ability to view Laurence Olivier as Hamlet while studying the play only furthers our students' appreciation for the text. We are also challenged by students who seek to specialize, who want to make films, pursue independent scientific research, write novels, or study ballet intensively. We continue to believe in “the classical humanistic tradition,” and, at the same time, we encourage dedication to a particular passion and celebrate students who achieve very significant accomplishments in a variety of areas. Nevertheless, this question of how we teach, especially with the use of new technologies, and what we teach, arises repeatedly as we look to incorporate teaching methods that will enable students to search for meaning, think across disciplines, synthesize ideas, and create beauty.

We have an extraordinarily talented group of students, girls from a wide geographic area who are drawn to Bryn Mawr for the intellectual challenge and academic success offered by our school community. Making Bryn Mawr affordable to the most deserving students is a critical focus for our school. In a conversation with a charter school principal here in Baltimore City, I asked what Bryn Mawr could do to help his school. “Take my top girls,” he said emphatically. “You can change their lives.” What might it mean for Bryn Mawr to be able to attract and enroll the most promising girls in the area regardless of their ability to pay our full tuition?

These questions and priorities will guide us in the foreseeable future. Our students today are the latest in a long line of formidable, fiercely curious young women who are coming into their own at The Bryn Mawr School. Our founders could only dream of the opportunities that await our graduates in the 21st century, but they were confident that one thing would never change: the link between preparation and accomplishment. Thanks to their determination, fearlessness, and vision, our founders have left an extraordinary legacy, and we’re proud to be entrusted with it.

Maureen E. Walsh
Headmistress