The Ridge

ReportFebruary 2015

What’s the girls’ school advantage?

We’re nearing midwinter, yet as I write this letter one would

think that summer is around the corner: comfortable

temperatures and blue skies on the Ridge! The buzz of activity

on campus reminds me that we are still months away from our

formal ending of the year. That means that new semesters are

beginning, sport practices are going full force, Women As

Global Leaders is planning new ventures to Australia and the

Dominican Republic as well as Alaska and the Arctic Circle,

and the applications and re-enrollments tell us that the desire

for a single sex, all girls education is still strong in the Seattle/

Bellevue area as well as with our international families.

What’s the girls’ school advantage? Well, the research tells us

that girls in a single sex educational environment are six times

as likely to consider majoring in science, math, or technology

and three times more likely to consider engineering careers

compared to their peers in a coed environment. A single sex

environment allows a girl to better explore the avenues

available to her—personally, educationally, and profession-

ally—in an atmosphere that encourages risk-taking and

achieving one’s personal best. And all of this is done with

peer role models and an expert and dedicated faculty there to

provide encouragement and support along the way. We like to

say at Forest Ridge that our work allows a girl to “find her

voice.” In reality, the result is richer: we encourage a girl to find

herself and leave us not only well-educated by any academic

standard but well-prepared for the challenges of the world and

how to navigate the many options she will have in life.

Our Foundress Madeleine Sophie Barat knew all of this in the

early 1800s when she started the Schools of the Sacred Heart in

France, the United States, and throughout the world. She didn’t

have the benefit of research literature to make her case; she had

the conviction that girls deserved the same opportunities as the

boys of her time and that included a first class education. She

also had faith that her work was rooted intrinsically in the

Sacred Heart of Jesus which for her was not only the best

endorsement but also a source of great consolation.

We are on a special journey together, one grounded in the

Goals and Criteria, one infused with time-tested results, and

one that today continues to educate and graduate young

women that are not intimidated by the challenges of today’s

world and of whom we are enormously proud.

Thanks for making the choice of Forest Ridge School of

the Sacred Heart and with that the benefits of an all-girls’

education.

Mark Pierotti Head of School

2 The Ridge Report

Isn’t Adolescence StressfulEnough?

But we must also recognize when our stress levels are too high, and we need strategies for dealing with the spikes in stress that come along. As a middle-school faculty, we have begun to explore this topic with Dr. Amy Mezulis, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at Seattle Pacific University. Dr. Mezulis defines stress as “any demand on your time, energy or attention. Stress is not necessarily good or bad. We feel ‘stressed’ when the demands placed on us are greater than our actual or perceived ability to cope effectively with them.” Like you, we want our girls to develop the life-long skills they need to manage the many stresses in their lives.

Dr. Mezulis describes the middle-school years as the “perfect storm” when it comes to stress. They are facing increasing stress levels as they navigate more complex social relationships, changing friendships and peer pressure. Academic demands increase, and girls are thinking ahead to high school, college and careers. The tasks of adolescence add stress as girls try to figure out who they are and what they value as individuals. Appropriately, girls have greater independence and make more decisions. Those opportunities are exciting, but they can also lead to higher stress levels.

So stress increases, at a time when physiologically our girls are ill-equipped to deal with that stress. As they enter puberty, increased estrogen levels lead to increased emotionality. And they begin the most dramatic period of brain growth that they will experience, other than the time between birth and age 3. You’ve all experienced the moments when your bright, logical, well-spoken child seems to flip a switch into a meltdown that reminds you of her toddler years, right? This comes in large part from the tremendous changes that are going on inside her brain. The limbic system continually monitors the environment for emotional cues and communicates emotional information to the rest of the brain. This primitive part of our brain, functioning well from birth, is protecting us from threats, ready to launch a “flight of fight” response in order to keep us safe. As adults, when we are flooded with emotions, we can recognize what is happening, we have more strategies for handling those emotions, and we can logically think through what is happening in order to respond appropriately.

But our girls haven’t arrived at that point yet. For that, we rely on our prefrontal cortex, our thinking brain, which doesn’t fully develop until the end of adolescence, somewhere between ages 21 and 24. We use our prefrontal cortex for reasoning, decision-making, weighing pros and cons, planning, organizing and problem solving. Of course, the prefrontal cortex is functioning in adolescents, often very well, but the chemical systems that help the prefrontal cortex and the limbic brain communicate well haven’t matured yet. So when stress increases, the limbic system takes over. Meltdown. Fight or flight—falling apart or shutting down. A perfect storm.

But the good news is that these adolescents are better able to develop strategies for resilience than at any other time. As parents and teachers, we can share the strategies that we use to calm ourselves down or to manage

our time when our work loads are especially heavy. Think back to her toddler years—you modeled a behavior for her, celebrated her when she got close to it, and encouraged her to keep trying. She still needs that kind of scaffolding. Telling her once and expecting her to solve a problem independently isn’t going to work for most young teens. Continue to coach her and celebrate her successes.

Another productive strategy is to develop a routine of planning ahead. On Sunday afternoons, or whatever time works for your family, sit down together to preview the upcoming week. What does she need to accomplish? What tests or projects are happening? What about family events and extracurricular activities? Talk through priorities and make a plan for accomplishing the week’s goals. Then put the plan where you can both reference it throughout the week, adjusting it as needed. Your daughter is growing in her ability to do this planning on her own, but in the meantime, your coaching and modeling provide support for her developing prefrontal cortex.

Sleep habits are particularly important for managing stress effectively. Experts say that adolescents should get 8.5 to 10 hours of sleep per night, yet most get far less than that. Lack of sleep is linked to increased emotionality and decreased alertness; every hour of sleep loss results in a 30% loss in alertness. Helping your daughter keep a regular bedtime and get enough sleep will increase her ability to manage the stresses that she experiences. Even if you can’t get her to 9 or 10 hours, getting closer will make a difference. This might mean prioritizing extra-curricular commitments.

As parents and teachers, it’s not our job to help our girls avoid stress; in fact, that would be a disservice. Rather, we walk alongside them, celebrating their successes, learning from the setbacks, and always communicating our confidence in their ability to withstand the storms.

Kathi Hand MS Dean of Academics

Stress is a part of life; in fact, some level of stress helps us be focused and productive.

Thank you to Dr. Amy Mezulis, for her permission to share

elements of her presentation and for her work in helping

middle-school faculty as we deepen our understanding of the

emotional lives of our girls.

The Ridge Report 3

Over the past couple of months, students have asked me, “What should I do when I’m visiting colleges?” My first response is obvious: take an official campus tour and attend an information session, but I advise students to go deeper than that. Read bulletin boards in the dining hall, academic buildings, student union and dorms. Do you see advertisements for activities that interest you? Are the majority of the flyers about off campus parties or Greek life? Another piece of advice is to observe the students in between classes. Are they walking in a group or alone? Are they laughing and having fun or are they serious? Don’t be afraid to ask an Admissions counselor or your tour guide to see a building that’s not typically shown on campus tour. If you’re an athlete, check out the gym. If you’re a budding scientist, ask to see freshman labs. One final piece of advice that I give students: do not let your tour guide determine if you like that particular school. Some tour guides are fonts of knowledge and have outgoing personalities, while others are quiet and might be having a bad day. Don’t let one person affect your attitude about the school. If you find that you have a mediocre tour guide, observe. Talk to random students about their experience. They chose that college for a reason, and most students have no problem telling you the good, the bad and the ugly about their school.

Students should begin visiting colleges as early as ninth grade, and there is really no “best time” to tour schools. (Just be aware that colleges are often under construction during summer months, and the normal vibe on campus

will be lacking since students are not in regular session.) Use school breaks, even one-day breaks, to visit colleges in our own backyard. You can get a real sense of what it might be like to attend a large school (University of Washington), medium school (Seattle University), and a small school (Seattle Pacific University or University of Puget Sound). If finances are an issue, some colleges will cover the cost of airfare for prospective students or admitted students to visit their institution.

Visiting colleges isn’t exclusive to students. Ms. Boismenue and I try to visit at least ten colleges a year that we’ve never seen. Between the two of us, we visited 16 colleges this fall, including American University; Georgetown University; Johns Hopkins University; Goucher College; University of Chicago; University of California, Berkeley; Santa Clara University; and Stanford University. When it comes time for us to meet with students and parents, having a firsthand perspective goes a long way.

On a final note, remember that your child’s interests and learning style is probably different from yours and even her best friend’s. Allow her to take the lead in telling you what attracts her to a particular college, and be open about her choices. Just because you might not have heard of that school doesn’t mean it’s not a great match for her.So get out there and visit colleges—I’ll guarantee you’ll find some true gems.

Ms. Nicole “Nikki” DanosDirector, College Counseling

College Visits 101One can only gather so much information by reading or hearing

about colleges. Of course, there is the objective piece (average test

scores, GPA, location, size, etc.) and the subjective piece (my aunt’s

best friend’s daughter went there and loved it!) The one sure way of

knowing what makes a college tick is by visiting.

Note: Be sure to connect to the College Counseling blog: https://forestridgecollegecounseling.wordpress.com/. It is updated weekly and provides you with the latest college news, information and resources.

4 The Ridge Report

One of the central goals of Forest Ridge is to “give girls their voice.” This is one of the main reasons many parents send their daughters to an all-girls school. By separating from boys for part of their education, girls get a chance to speak up in the classroom and be heard. The result is greater confidence in testing and assert-ing ideas.

Research shows that boys tend to blurt out answers and girls tend to raise their hand and wait respectfully to be called on. At Forest Ridge, girls have the opportunity to learn in an environment where the norm is to raise your hand and wait your turn to speak. Allowing for the occasional outburst of youthful exuberance, discourse is generally treated in a considerate manner. But what happens after Forest Ridge, especially when our girls get out into the big, wide world of work?

A recent article in the New York Times, by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant, highlights how often women’s voices are not heard as much at the workplace. “When a woman speaks in a professional setting, she walks a tightrope. Either she’s barely heard or she’s judged as too aggressive. When a man says virtually the same thing, heads nod in appreciation for his fine idea. As a result, women often decide that saying less is more.” (NY Times, 1/12/15).

The article cited a 2013 research study conducted by Victoria L. Brescoll from Yale University on the effect of power on speaking time. “She asked professional men and women to evaluate the competence of chief executives who voiced their opinions more or less frequently. Male executives who spoke more often than their peers were rewarded with 10 percent higher ratings of competence. When female executives spoke more than their peers, both men and women punished them with 14 percent lower ratings. As this and other research shows, women who worry that talking ‘too much’ will cause them to be disliked are not paranoid; they are often right.”

This is sobering news for our incredibly smart, talented, opinionated, and passionate young women at Forest Ridge.

It is encouraging that there is increased awareness about the issues surrounding women and inequities that exist in the workplace. There have been some clever solutions to “gender bias while speaking” in various professions. Orchestras now routinely use blind auditions, which has increased the number of women who are selected. Innovation tournaments often have employees submit suggestions and solutions to problems anonymously. “Mr. Mazzara [of “The Shield”] found a clever way to change the dynamics that were holding back two female employees. He announced to the writers that he was instituting a no-interruption rule while anyone – male or female – was pitching. It worked, and he later observed that it made the entire team more effective.”

Of course, the solution to this problem of the double bind of speaking while female is to increase the number of women in leadership roles in organizations. According to Sandberg and Adam, “as more women enter the upper echelons of organizations, people become more accustomed to women’s contributing and leading.” This will lead to work environments where women’s voices are valued and listened to, uninterrupted.

Spending at least some education time in an all-girls environment gives young women a leg-up on the college and workplace challenges ahead. Many Forest Ridge alumnae feel that they are very comfortable speaking up in class at college. They have found their voice and they

are not afraid to use it! With the “wise freedom” we instill in our daughters, let’s also encourage them to continue fearlessly to put forward their ideas. They are so urgently needed.

WE GIVE GIRLS THEIR VOICES; Then They Have to Own Them

Cynthia Seely, Parent ‘16/Board of Trustees

Regina Mooney, Ph.D., Director of Institutional Advancement

The Ridge Report 5

Expanding our worldthrough new partnerships

This year, Women as Global Leaders has launched a new Global Health initiative which involves both a local component, and an international component with opportunities for high school students to step outside of their comfort zones and build new literacy around community health.

Neighborcare, (http://www.neighborcare.org/), the largest provider of primary medical and dental care in Seattle for low income and uninsured families in the Seattle area is a new Forest Ridge partner in community and global health learning. Together with Americorps volunteers and Neighborcare administrative and medical staff, Forest Ridge students will have the opportunity to work in two Seattle based clinics, providing outreach and education to young people and families about the importance of oral health. Students have already had the opportunity to meet with the Neighborcare staff and learn about the history and

values of Neighborcare which are very similar to our Forest Ridge values; namely social justice, excellence, cultural sensitivity and community. The overlap of these values is why we chose to partner with Neighborcare in an exploration of what outside of the classroom learning can look like for a Forest Ridge student. Our mutual hope is that our partnership can be extended to both middle school and high school students in the near future. For those of you who follow Women as Global Leaders on Twitter @WomenGloballead, stay tuned for gems from the students later this month.

Looking ahead to the April Ridge Report, I will discuss the framework for our International Global Health course being launched in the high school with a travel component to the Dominican Republic June 23-30.

On our own campus, we have brought Chanel Summers, audio designer and design thinker, to work in the high school with the sophomores in Brien Gorham’s class. This semester’s unit focuses on the Harlem Renaissance, and with Chanel, students are encouraged to utilize audio design as another element of storytelling and world building. Chanel and Brien have designed the course to guide students through the process of creative problem solving, critical analysis and individual expression through soundscapes. Stay tuned for samples of the student work as the semester progresses!

Lastly, our partnership with TEDx is on hold this semester as we commit ourselves to intentional programming that serves our students to the fullest. While the past two years of TEDx programming have been an invigorating experience for all of us, we are also aware that we have some opportunities to grow the event. As such, we have decided not to program TEDx this March 6, but look for a re-launch later on this calendar year.

I am excited for what these new relationships will bring to our community, and I am even more excited for what we as a community can offer to our new partners. Our students are dynamic and engaged, our faculty are passionate and committed, and our vision is global. With all of these partnerships we have opportunities to be in conversation about the world and our roles in it, whether we are students, teachers, administrators or staff. Thank you for all your support of Women as Global Leaders, and as always, be sure to follow us on @WomenGloballead for updates on experiences and observations about female leadership.

Kisha X. Palmer Director of Women As Global Leaders

6 The Ridge Report

The Value of ReflectionWhen was the last time you paused to take in the sunrise, or the beauty of the fog settling over Seattle? We are so lucky to have a campus surrounded by natural beauty. So often though, we are rushing to get to school on time and we miss the amazing show Mother Nature is putting on.

I was fortunate to spend a few days last month with the junior class on their Kairos retreat. Kairos means “God’s time.” It is a break from chronos time, which is what we are more accustomed to. During the retreat, students are challenged to give up their watches and phones and release themselves from the confines of chronos time. During the course of the retreat, students are asked to consider the following questions: Who am I? Who is God? Who am I in relationship to others? This time of reflection was a great opportunity to slow down and see the beauty of the students and nature surrounding us.

Kairos has a reputation for being a retreat in which the students cry and are forced to share their deepest secrets. This is not true. Do students cry while on retreat? Some do, but that’s OK. We don’t take time during our daily life to examine what our hearts are saying to us, so when we do, it may bring up things that make us cry tears of joy or tears of pain. One of the goals of the Kairos retreat is to teach the students to slow down and find moments of reflection. We feel that this skill will be beneficial for the rest of their lives. Journaling is used as a way to help students process what may be inside of her. Every year, there are a few students who feel their time would be better spent continuing on with her studies, but we feel that this time of retreat is just as important. A Sacred Heart school educates the whole child.

Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” It is our hope that your daughters are learning the skill of reflection, so that she can take moments away to examine the extraordinary life she is living.

Tanya Lange. Campus Minister & CAS Coordinator

To broaden her baking knowledge, Sous Chef “Kat” received an Albers grant to participate in a bread making workshop in San Francisco. She increased her knowledge of classical French breads and now even the baguettes on pasta Monday are made and baked in-house. The FRidge’s transition to in-house baked goods has been well-received by students and as of January, the “bakery” has utilized almost a half-ton of flour. Now, Sous Chef Kat takes pride in being able to make wholesome preservative-free treats and hamburger buns that the Forest Ridge community enjoys.

The incorporates FRidgeIn-House Bakery Program

Mmmm….smell that fresh baked aroma coming from the FRidge? Hamburger buns, English muffins, pitas, scones, biscuits, banana breads, lemon breads and muffins are taking on a little different look and taste this school year. That’s because the FRidge started scratch-making many of its baked goods. The change is a result of Sous Chef Katrina Schonberg-Hamers decision. She didn’t like serving our specialty grass-fed beef burgers on ordinary buns and she knew we could provide a more delicious product and that sparked a vision for an entirely new in-house baking program.

Fostering Nutritional LearningIf you have been to the FRidge and eaten a fresh omelet for breakfast, chances are it was made fresh and served by Steph Fairweather. Steph is a graduate of Bastyr University’s Master of Nutrition Science program and is a Certified Nutritionist. She’s currently on assignment at Forest Ridge in a 6-week food service management internship. Chef Ron Askew is her intern supervisor and has a Bastyr connection as well--he helped found the Nutrition and Culinary Program at the University.

Steph has enjoyed her time working with the FRidge staff and with Forest Ridge students in food production. She commented, “My life goal as a nutritionist is to connect people – especially youth – to the kinds of foods that will make them feel healthy and vital. I like to show people how easy and affordable it really is to include vegetables, fruits, grains, beans and responsibly raised meats and fish into the daily routine. It’s so refreshing to see whole food nutrition philosophies practiced in the FRidge kitchen – using a variety of wholesome, locally grown foods like roasted squash, Garden Treasures Farms beans, Whidbey Island Company ice cream made with blackberries harvested on the grounds—I mean, wow! This food service model takes the diet and lifestyle principles taught at Bastyr and actualizes them. Plus, it’s fun to see those beaming smiles in the Commons when we’re providing really delicious food!”

The Ridge Report 7

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