Category: Girls High Alumnae News

Introducing Three New Social Media Projects

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The Communications Committee of the Alumnae Association is excited to announce the launch of three social media projects. Over the next three months, we will be introducing an interactive map, a social meme that will let the world know you’re a proud GFS graduate, and a monthly spotlight of an alum. “Where in the World” will add a visual highlight to a fact that every alum knows; Girls High Girls are everywhere!!! This interactive map will show our sisters far and close. Another project is a meme that with the theme “I’m a Girls High Girl…” When you see it, please add your special memories of what makes you a Girls’ High Girl. Our last social media project unfolds in two parts; the first will be a contest to name the initiative. The winner receives a gift card for two. The Court of Distinguished Daughters is a much anticipated bi-annual […]

Successful Benefit Concert for GHS Music Department

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It was a beautiful evening of shared music, warm memories, and sisterly fellowship in support of continued music education at Girls High. Here’s a photo of Marietta Simpson singing with piano accompaniment by her sister, Evelyn Simpson-Curenton. Photos taken are on our Facebook Alumnae Group page, and we welcome you to join our discussion there. Dimitri Kauriga, former Music Director, was joined by a brilliant group of Alumnae and friends to present a concert to secure teaching positions in the Music Department. It’s not too late to donate! Stipulate music department in the note of your PayPal donation and your tax-deductible gift will be directed to this benefit.

Mary Schmidt Campbell Named President of Spelman College

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Alumna Mary Schmidt Campbell, President of Spelman

GHS’s own Mary Schmidt Campbell named new president of Spelman College Spelman College named Mary Schmidt Campbell its 10th president. Campbell is the dean emerita of the Tisch School of the Arts and university professor in the Department of Art and Public Policy at New York University. She starts Aug. 1, following Beverly Daniel Tatum’s 13 years as Spelman’s president, Spelman College issued the following release late Saturday afternoon: Today the Board of Trustees of Spelman College announced the selection of Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D. as the College’s 10 th president since its founding in 1881. Dr. Campbell assumes the role officially August 1, 2015, having served as dean emerita of the Tisch School of the Arts and university professor in the Department of Art and Public Policy at New York University. Dr. Campbell’s experience spans both the private and non-profit sectors. Dr. Campbell received a B.A. degree in English […]

Girls High Graduate, Class of 1910, Recognized with Grave Stone

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Oberdorfer Minor gets head stone

By Samaria Bailey Tribune Correspondent (excerpted) The Philadelphia Tribune, March 30, 2015 Pauline Oberdorfer Minor, a 1910 graduate of Girls High and Founder of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, was finally celebrated with a well-attended memorial Saturday March 28th at Eden Cemetery in Collingdale, just outside of Southwest Philadelphia. Her whereabouts had remained a mystery for years until her history and contribution were uncovered in 2013 by members of the sorority she founded. Oberdorfer graduated from the Philadelphia High School for Girls in 1910, and, later that year enrolled at Howard University, where she helped found Delta Sigma Theta in 1913. According to research, in 1914 she graduated at the top of her class and by 1915 was teaching at a school in South Carolina. She later would teach in West Chester. In addition to teaching, Oberdorfer wrote songs and performed as a mezzo-soprano recitalist, focusing on spirituals. In her biography, […]

Girls High Alumna Is 2015 Oscar Winner!

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Girls High Alumna Ellen Goosenberg Kent

Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 is a 2013 documentary film about the Veterans’ Crisis Line, directed by Girls High Alumnae, Ellen Goosenberg Kent. It received the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) at the 87th Academy Awards. The film focuses on the employees who staff the United States Department of Veterans Affairs suicide hotline in Canandaigua, New York. The 44-minute documentary shows the emotional strain the job has on employees (many of whom are veterans, former service members, or military family members), and the deep compassion and devotion they have for veterans in a time of crisis. She also produced and directed Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq in 2007. Ellen Goosenberg Kent: “The number of responders at the Crisis Line grew from about 100 to 250 during the time we were there. These are superbly well-trained people, deeply compassionate and about a quarter of them are veterans themselves. […]

School Matters: Turning ‘Collaboration’ into a Bad Word

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Ken Derstine: School Matters

By Ken Derstine, Posted April 12, 2015 The disastrous budget that Governor Cuomo has achieved in New York deepens the attack on teachers and public education. Among its many regressive measures, the budget includes evaluating teachers based on standardized test scores. This is despite the American Statistical Association estimating that teachers affect test scores by a factor of 1% to 14% , and that evaluating teachers by scores may actually reduce quality. The development of a national teacher evaluation system based on standardized tests has been the ten-year goal of The Gates Foundation and The Broad Foundation. Gates wants to bring the data crunching of computer technology to create an automated system for ranking teachers and schools in order to create a two-tier system of education basically based on class differences. Broad wants to bring his business acumen to education, and like a businessman engaged in a hostile takeover, reorganize […]