Mentor Me.

As I was walking home the other day to put the finishing touches on a pie for seated meal with my advisees, I heard two voices coming from the stairs on the back side of the Arcade. I was headed for the front staircase. As I began my descent, I turned to confirm that one of the voices was that of Don Wood, Chair of the Math Department and advisor. The other voice was that of a new student who was talking to Don about her classes and work that she needed to do. I would have taken a photo if I could have done so without being noticed, because it was classic: younger person and older person profiles with blue sky and trees arching behind them, framed by the barrel vault curve of the arcade over the staircase on which they perched. Classic. And that is what a lot of our mentor/mentee pairings look like. A wise adult working with a younger student to help guide her through those, at times, turbulent years of adolescence. Our students come to us having learned so much in 13 plus years of life. And they come to us with the possibility of learning so much more. From the concrete to abstract learned in the classroom to those skills one learns by being part of a community — some harder lessons than others — members of the Chatham Hall community rely on one another to make sure that we all take in what we need to learn –in ways that individuals can hear.n

In Chapel the other day, Chaplain Ned Edwards finished his four-part series on what it means to be an Episcopal school with a chapel program (different from being an Episcopal church). He talked, in part, about applying the lessons we learn in Chapel to our everyday lives. We say “Thank you,” because we learn to do so in Chapel. We hold the doors for seemingly hours for someone who has exited the door at one end of the Arcade and who is headed for the other end. We are a community of helpers and thankers (Auto-correct is sending me a message by trying to correct “thankers” to “thinkers.” Yes, we are a community of thinkers, too.). And we give thanks to those who help us learn our lessons.

We all need mentors. In class the other day, as French 1 students were finishing up their first quiz and moving it from their editing app to Dropbox, several students asked how to do that with an app I had never used before. In a harried moment, I looked at the app, received a question from a student who was still taking the quiz, and looked back to the iPad with the unfamiliar app. Part of the fun with apps is figuring them out, but at this moment, I was pulled in too many directions. A student who had finished her quiz raised her hand with a look of uncertainty on her face and said, “I know how to do it. May I show her?” Oh, yes! She made her way around the table and took the student and me (I am good at looking over shoulders and taking in information) through the process. Now I know how to do it. Student as mentor. It happens here a lot. The classic idea of mentors is that older/younger model, but it makes me think about the depth of this community that we all recognize that mentors come in all shapes, sizes, ages, genders, and that we can seek help and inspiration from all. Martha Griswold
Academic Dean

Martha A. Griswold, Academic Dean
Chatham Hall
800 Chatham Hall Circle
Chatham, VA 24531
434.432.5617

Chatham Hall is at the forefront of all-girls education. We value academic excellence, inspire integrity, and instill global responsibility in tomorrow’s leaders.