Skip To Main Content

Academics

Interior Hero Photo

A Unique Learning Experience

The world is changing and learners are changing with it. Emma Willard School's program equips our students to meet the extraordinary opportunities and challenges of their time, building caring, energetic, and thoughtful leaders.

Emma Willard School's program is centered around three pillars: Intellectual Flexibility, Purpose & Community, and Equity & Justice. From Academics to Student Life, these pillars permeate the Emma experience. We value creating a sense of belonging and community, holding up an expanded view of learning, and providing students time to reflect on what they've learned and what they would like to learn in the future. Explore these pages to envision what you'll learn at Emma!

A student works on an art project while another provides information from a laptop
Ew Logo

Program Pillars

Our academic program is focused on what matters most in learning—relevance, enduring understanding, and multidisciplinary connection. In order to educate a generation of learners ready and able to meet the most pressing issues of our time, we commit ourselves to the following program pillars.

Intellectual Flexibility

Emma Willard School strives to educate a generation of learners ready and able to address the most pressing issues of their time. During their time at Emma, students develop the intellectual flexibility to consider big questions and to work to solve big problems.

Read more...

four students smiling and laughing in class, one raising their hand

Purpose & Community

Fundamental to personal wellbeing is the life-long exploration of one’s self and one’s contribution to the world. The Emma Willard School curriculum fosters a sense of purpose in each student by emphasizing relevance, impact, and community connection.

Read more...

students gathered around a table in community doing a puzzle together

Equity & Justice

Living and learning in a global, inclusive community requires purposeful practice. Our curriculum provides exposure to and understanding of the global community, and develops the skills necessary to build and sustain equity and justice in the world.

Read more...

Students walking under the display of flags in Kellas
Ew Logo

Interested in joining the faculty at Emma Willard School? We practice "continuous recruitment" and collect resumes year-round to quickly have on file when positions become available.

More details

Arts Department

The arts department offers a variety of courses in music, theatre, dance and visual arts. Students have the opportunity to learn vocabulary and problem-solving and performing techniques that are unique to each discipline. Our course offerings are designed for students of all levels of interest and proficiency so that students are able to explore new areas as well as study a particular art form in depth.

Read More about Arts Department
English Department

In their English classes, Emma students read works that fascinate, entreat, inform, enliven, frustrate, and delight them. They explore new forms of writing, mastering the analytical essay as well as creative pieces.

Read More about English Department
History Department

Beyond a slate of history courses, at Emma our curriculum transcends the discipline by offering introductions to arts studies, social sciences, and cross-disciplinary scholarship. Our instructors stress observation and interpretation of primary sources and data; critical engagement with scholarship; research and writing; and seminar discussion of ideas. Students draw on our own extensive school archives, visit historic sites, and work with local historians, museum staff, archivists, and others as they explore the past. 

Read More about History Department
Mathematics Department

Emma students will spend their adult lives in a world influenced by technology and quantitative methods. For this reason, each student is asked to see mathematics as a tool for problem solving. 

Read More about Mathematics Department
Physical Education

Athletics, Physical Education, and Dance provide our students with learning opportunities through the medium of movement and contribute to their overall development by helping them to lead full, active and healthy lives.

Read More about Physical Education
READY Seminar

In order to be ready to serve and shape their world, our students must learn to practice care and understand purpose for themselves, then envision and enact those skills in their communities and the broader world. The READY Program is a four-year curriculum designed to support this learning by creating a thoughtful and experiential practice on what it means to be human.

Read More about READY Seminar
Science Department

Tap into your curiosity about the world around you, ask thought-provoking questions, and employ scientific processes to make predictions, collect and analyze data, and share conclusions about scientific phenomena.

Read More about Science Department

Download our course catalog for more details and graduation requirements.

Course Catalog

EW

Academic Highlights

Academics Office

Meredith Legg

Meredith Legg

Associate Head of School
Caroline Boyajian

Caroline Boyajian

Director of Curriculum and Innovation, English Instructor
Casey Summers

Casey Summers

Registrar, Co-Head Volleyball Coach
Anna Navarro

Anna Navarro

Administrative Assistant to the Academic Office