What exactly is a changemaker? This term has become increasingly popular as articles and opinion pieces have been written on the topic by Fast Company, Huffington Post, Forbes, and The New York Times. Ashoka—a nonprofit organization that identifies and supports the world's leading social entrepreneurs—defines a changemaker as “one who desires change in the world and, by gathering knowledge and resources, makes that change happen.”
While changemaker may seem like a lofty idea, the reality is: you want your daughter to make her mark in whatever way is meaningful to her.
This could mean saving patients as the lead doctor in the emergency room, or being at the helm of a kindergarten classroom and teaching children how to read. Maybe it means running for office and making policy changes in government. Or maybe it means creating artwork that challenges people to think about the social issues that she’s passionate about. Whatever being a changemaker means to your daughter, you want her to know that you’re behind her every step of the way as she uses her talents to shape the world for the better.
At The Ellis School, teachers know their students will enter a world in which the challenges and opportunities will be ever evolving—a world in which they’ll need to solve problems that haven’t yet been discovered, to think creatively, to learn new concepts and skills they’ve never needed before—and they want them to be ready to not only succeed, but to excel in this world. This is why our teachers carefully design programming, environments, and learning experiences that grow girls to be brave, bold changemakers.
To accomplish this, girls need to be able to embrace change and be resilient and optimistic. They need to be masters at identifying and solving complex problems like the ones they practice through our interdisciplinary, project-based courses in grades 9 through 11, to excel at working collaboratively in diverse teams the way they are challenged to do so in the Upper School Introduction to Engineering course, and to bring creative approaches to their work the way they are asked to in our Middle School co-curricular programs. They need the confidence to assert their ideas and stick up for themselves, to be proactive about asking for help or pursuing opportunities. They need to be comfortable taking calculated risks and sometimes failing, and be able to pick themselves up and learn from their mistakes. All of which can be seen in even our youngest learners in pre-kindergarten to grade 4.
As a student at Ellis, your daughter will learn the problem-solving, critical thinking, and social and emotional skills she needs to impact change. Because our all-girls environment grants girls the space, rehearsal, and opportunity to do so.
Interested in learning more about how we are preparing girls to be the leaders of tomorrow?