Philosophy and Research
Leadership Program
The Orchard House Leadership Program
Goal
The goal of the Orchard House Leadership Program is to develop adolescent girls who understand personal and collective power and use both to contribute to the world.
Rationale
Orchard House believes the world is a better place when students are engaged, constructive, and useful. It is with the long view in mind, imagining children as adults, global citizens, leaders and followers, that the Orchard House Leadership Program was developed.
In a culture where the inclination is to think personally, the goal of our program is to think and to act with a wider lens of awareness and connection. As the world becomes more unified economically, ecologically and technologically, Orchard House students are led to understand and appreciate the connections of life among all members of our world and respond with respect, awareness, and positive contribution.
Developmental Research
The Orchard House Leadership Program is based on extensive research in the areas of leadership, physical and emotional development of adolescent girls and brain and gender science. The program is based on the following premises:
- In a single sex environment, each girl has greater opportunities to lead and to follow;
- Identity formation is the chief developmental task of adolescents;
- There continues to be a gender inequity in leadership positions;
- Effective leaders are distinguished by self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and positive social skills, and
- Culturally, people sort through massive amounts of information and are called upon to make a multitude of decisions quickly.
The Orchard House Leadership Program is designed to begin with self-knowledge and end with a strong sense of personal authenticity and full participation in the broader community.
Program Description
Our program is a four-year, interdisciplinary program with multiple facets for fifth through eighth grade students. In the fifth grade, the emphasis is on roots: getting each girl off to a good start academically, physically, emotionally and socially. In sixth grade, the focus is on respect, both personal and mutual, as girls develop tools for self-respect, understanding differences and building a strong community. In seventh grade, the emphasis is on one's personal journey: exploring what is true for them as individuals in the context of other lives and leaders. In eighth grade, the emphasis is on voice and wings as the girls move on to high school, transitioning into the larger world as young women.
Specific strands of the Orchard House Leadership Program include:
- art and creativity
- career awareness
- civics and citizenship
- communication skills
- community development
- diversity
- ethics and decision making
- finance
- global issues
- health and well being
- leadership models and styles
- mathematics for the real world
- quantitative reasoning
- self awareness and personal development
- service learning
- social skills
- study skills and organization
- time management
Strands of the Leadership Program are taught within the homerooms, within academic, arts and physical education classes and as part of the computer and math labs. Other sections of the program are taught as discrete leadership classes, in community town meetings and in school wide meetings and assemblies.
A girl's leadership experience at Orchard House concludes with her eighth grade graduation speech, which she writes and delivers to the school community.
"If you asked me what the most important thing I learned this year was, I wouldn't say it was cell mitosis or how much calcium a teenage girl needs. I would like to say I learned who I truly was. But I didn't. I'm not as enlightened as all that yet. I did, however, learn that whoever I am, when I find out, if I find that out, is okay. And I learned this okay person can see something in the world around her and change it. Whether I change it for better or worse is up to me."
Graduation Speech, Elena Broaddus, former Orchard House student
Upon graduation from Orchard House, Elena graduated from Maggie Walker High School in Richmond. She is currently enrolled at Cornell University.
