- The Westover School, often referred to simply as "Westover," is an independent college-preparatory day and boarding school for girls. Located in Middlebury, Connecticut, USA, the school offers grades 9-12. The school was founded in 1909 by Mary Robbins Hillard and designed by noted female architect Theodate Pope Riddle.
- The school’s operating expenses are $10.6 million; parents, friends, and a base of 3,451 alumnae raised $1,400,911 for the 2007–08 Annual Fund. The school’s endowment is $42 million.
- The School is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and approved by the state of Connecticut. Memberships include the National Association of Independent Schools, the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools, the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools, and the College Board.
- Mission statement
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Westover’s Mission Statement is To provide an environment that inspires the intellectual, artist, athlete, and philosopher in each student.
- Academic Program
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A minimum of 18 credits is required for graduation, including 4 in English, 3 in mathematics, 3 in languages, 2? in history, 2? in science, and 2 in the arts. Computer literacy and community service are required. Twenty-one AP courses are offered. Some requirements may be modified for entering juniors.
- There are numerous English trimester electives for eleventh- and twelfth-grade students—for example, Contemporary Poetry; Dante’s Vision; Fantastic and Possible Futures (Film and Fiction); Inner and Outer Nature; Genesis, Job, and the Gospels; Poetics and the Iliad; Romantic Poetry; James Joyce's Ulysses; Shakespeare: Comedy, Tragedy, and Romance; Tolstoy; and Truth, Beauty, Justice. Advanced Placement courses are offered in art, art history, biology, calculus, chemistry, computer science, English, environmental science, European history, French, Spanish, statistics, Latin, Chinese, music, physics, U.S. history, and U.S. government.
- The arts requirement may be fulfilled not only by numerous studio art, art history, and music courses but also by advanced trimester courses in dance and theater arts.
- Three special programs enhance the curriculum at Westover. For talented musicians, there is a joint program with the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Division. For qualified girls who hold a strong interest in science and engineering, Westover offers the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) program, which is a joint program with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. For the preprofessional dancer, there is a joint program with Brass City Ballet of Middlebury.
- Westover School provides an advanced English as a second language program for international students who are otherwise highly qualified but who require assistance in improving their English skills.
- Faculty and Advisors
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There are 30 full-time and 18 part-time teaching faculty members. All have bachelor’s degrees, 21 have master’s degrees, and 1 holds a Ph.D. The majority of the teaching faculty members live in school-owned housing. Dorm parents live in apartments on the nine residential student corridors. All members of the faculty are encouraged to seek professional development, and funds are available to do so.
- The current Head of School is Ann Pollina, who holds a B.A. (Fordham University) and an M.A. (New York University).
- Athletics
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The school's athletic program offers a variety of sports ranging in levels of competition from highly competitive varsity teams to noncompetitive individual endeavors such as rock climbing. The Fuller Athletic Center houses a full-length basketball court, four volleyball courts, a multi-level indoor-climbing wall, a fitness center, four international squash courts, and a multipurpose room for yoga, aerobics, and meetings.
- Westover is a member of the New England Prep School League and the Western New England Prep School Athletic Association (WNEPSAA). Some of the schools from WNEPSAA that Westover plays are Gunnery, Kingswood-Oxford, Kent, Miss Hall's, Miss Porter's, Taft, and Westminster.
- Westover also participates in the Connecticut Independent School Athletic Conference (CISAC) in basketball, field hockey, lacrosse, soccer, softball, and tennis. Some of the CISAC schools include Chase Collegiate, Ethel Walker’s, Hamden Hall, and Williams.
- Extracurricular Opportunities
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There are numerous clubs and organizations that support interests in the environment, social services, arts, languages, and writing. Three School publications and the Glee Club involve large numbers of students. Many students and other members of the Westover community take part in all aspects of the production of a musical.
- Classes often make trips to New York, Boston, New Haven, and other cultural centers to visit museums or to see theater productions, operas, or ballets.
- Admission Information
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Acceptance to Westover is based on school performance, academic potential, motivation, and character. The SSAT is required; the TOEFL is required for students whose native language is not English.
- Westover School admits girls of any race, color, or national or ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national or ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, or athletic and other School-administered programs.
- Notable alumnae
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Sylvia Shaw Judson, (aka Sylvia Shaw Haskins), (deceased) Class of 1915, sculptor, creator of "Bird Girl" (used on the cover of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) and many other works
- Edith Cummings Munson, (deceased) Class of 1917, professional golfer, first American woman on the cover of Time magazine (Aug. 25, 1924)
- Ginevra King Pirie, (deceased) Class of 1917, Chicago socialite who was F. Scott Fitzgerald's inspiration for the character of Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby (Their story is the subject of The Perfect Hour: The Romance of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ginevra King, His First Love by James L.W. West III).
- Alice Tully, (deceased) Class of 1920, philanthropist, patron of New York City's music institutions. Lincoln Center's chamber music hall is named after her.
- Isabel Rockefeller Lincoln, (deceased) Class of 1920
- Polly Thayer Starr, (deceased) Class of 1922, artist whose paintings and drawings are part of permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the New Britain Museum of American Art, and the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, among other institutions.
- Winifred Rockefeller Emeny, (deceased) Class of 1923
- Minnie Cushing Astor Fosburgh, (deceased) Class of 1925, Betsey Cushing Roosevelt Whitney, (deceased) Class of 1928, and Babe Cushing Mortimer Paley, (deceased) Class of 1934. The Cushing Sisters were socialites whose marriages connected them to some of the most noted and wealthy families in America of mid-20th century American (the Astors, Roosevelts, Whitneys, Mortimers,and Paleys). Their lives were detailed in The Sisters: The Lives and Times of the Fabulous Cushing Sisters by David Grafton.
- Elizabeth "Beppie" Huidekoper, Class of 1970, Harvard University's Vice President for Finance from 1996 until 2002 (she and fellow Westover alumna, Sally Hoover Zeckhauser '60, have been the only female Vice Presidents of Harvard and they served there together while Huidekoper was at Harvard). She has been Brown University's Vice President for Finance since 2002.
- Princess Zein bint Al Hussein, Class of 1986, Jordanian Princess, daughter of the late King Hussein and sister to King Abdullah II of Jordan.
- Honore McDonough Ervin, Class of 1993, writer, co-author of Things You Need to Be Told: A Handbook for Polite Behavior in a Tacky, Rude World and More Things You Need to Be Told: A Guide to Good Taste and Proper Comportment in a Tacky, Rude World, co-creator and author of popular website EtiquetteGrrls.com, and creator and author of EtiquetteGrrlStyle.com.
- Mothers of Noted Actors:
- Grace Ewing Huffman, Class of 1940, (mother of actress Felicity Huffman, star of television's Sports Night, Desperate Housewives and Oscar-nominated star of Transamerica)
- Barbara Lamb Johnson, Class of 1949, (mother of actor Christopher Reeve)
- Penny Levy Peet, Class of 1959, (mother of actress Amanda Peet of Something's Gotta Give and other films)
- External links
- Westover School
- Source: Wikipedia; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.
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