For nearly 140 years, the story of Dana Hall School has been a story of leadership, innovation, and impact. We are, and always have been, an institution with a distinctive mission and a powerful sense of purpose. This mission has inspired generations of Dana educators to devise and deliver bold academic programs, to appreciate the unique possibilities and pressures facing girls and young women inside and outside the classroom, and to attract students from across the world. We prepare students for the challenges and choices they will face as women and citizens of the world, and we help create the confident, compassionate, intellectually curious young women the world so desperately needs.
This strategic plan, which charts our story through 2025, aims to enrich and extend the Dana Difference‑to look with fresh eyes and open minds at our academic offerings and distinctive approach to teaching and learning, our diverse and global community of students and families, the experience of residential life, the ever‑evolving places and spaces of our campus, and the resources required to deliver on our vision and ensure that a Dana education remains within reach for students from as wide a variety of backgrounds as possible.
Vision 2025 is meant to be both aspirational and actionable. Our aim is to create a vivid description of the future, and to identify what is required, institutionally and financially, to make that future a reality. To that end, this plan sets out a set of projects, programs, and initiatives organized around the five core themes that we believe will shape the Dana Hall of 2025.
Dana Hall embarks on its next chapter from a position of unparalleled strength and possibility. Our finances have never been stronger, our students have never been more accomplished, our mission has never been more relevant. At the same time, many of our key constituencies (from families and alumnae to colleges and universities) are asking more of us than ever, and the economic and social landscape of independent education is changing faster than ever. It is easy to be excited about all that Dana Hall is poised to achieve through 2025, yet hard not to be struck by the complexities and pressures facing all independent schools, especially those of access and affordability.
So we bring to this plan what the legendary Stanford educator John Gardner called “tough-minded optimism”—an unblinking recognition of the challenges that the School, our students, and their families navigate every day, and an abiding faith in our capacity to deliver on a truly distinctive vision of what we can and should become. Vision 2025 reflects our deep belief in the timeless mission of Dana Hall, and our commitment to a set of timely innovations that will shape an even more compelling future for the School.
We hope you share our enthusiasm for enriching and extending the Dana Difference, and that you will make a difference in the future of this vital institution.
Dana Hall has always been committed to academic rigor. Going forward, we will also embrace a commitment to academic vigor—cultivating a spirit of intellectual curiosity, energy, and curricular dynamism, rethinking how students, teachers, and coaches spend time in the classroom, on the courts and playing fields, on the stage and in the studio.
Dana Hall provides its students with a unique opportunity to prepare themselves for the challenges and choices they will face as women and citizens of the world. We cultivate the academic skills, athletic and artistic pursuits, socio‑emotional strengths, and life experiences necessary for graduates to thrive in a world that is changing faster than ever. Dana Hall has always been, and will remain, committed to academic rigor and co‑curricular distinction. We will deliver excellence in disciplines from history, literature, and the arts to math, science, and computing. We will encourage more girls to immerse themselves in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) courses, create more opportunities for advanced Upper School STEAM students, and accelerate STEAM development, beginning in the Middle School.
Going forward, we will also lead the way in embracing a spirit of and a commitment to academic vigor—cultivating programs of study that encourage a spirit of curiosity, passion and personal growth, not just mastery of static content; reflecting on whether and how familiar academic offerings align with the skills and content students need to thrive at Dana, in higher education, and in their careers; rethinking how students and teachers spend their time inside and outside the classroom, to respond to the crisis of overscheduled students, to emphasize quality of experience over quantity, and balance ambition and anxiety in a way that fosters wellness and mitigates stress.
Building upon Dana Hall’s founding principle of boldly educating young women, we will reassess and refine our academic and co‑curricular programs so that they prepare students to thrive in the world that will be, not the world as it has been.
Moreover, Dana Hall will be a leader in culturally competent teaching practices. We will provide faculty with professional development opportunities that encourage personal reflection, innovative craft, and an understanding of the evolving needs of young women from a wide range of backgrounds, countries, and cultures. We will create more opportunities for each student, inside and outside the classroom, to share her experiences and develop her voice, in order to deepen and broaden the learning environment for all students. We will revisit and refresh our much‑admired programs aimed at fostering life balance, personal resilience, and emotional well‑being. We will develop students with deep cross‑cultural understanding, empathy, compassion, and the ability to thrive in a diverse world. Read on: Initiatives
The true promise of Dana Hall is rooted in the diversity of its students, families, alumnae, teachers, administrators, and staff. That promise materializes when differences in lived experience serve to unite us around a shared sense of purpose, voice, and belonging.
The true promise of Dana Hall is rooted in the diversity of its students, families, alumnae, teachers, administrators, and staff. That promise materializes when differences in lived experience serve to unite us around a shared sense of purpose, voice, and belonging. Genuine inclusion means turning what may look like either‑or distinctions into both—and connections: days students and boarding students; domestic boarders and international boarders; Middle School and Upper School; students, teachers, and administrators of many national, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
We will identify and implement a set of initiatives to support a unified Dana community and create a spirit and reality of inclusion that defines life at the School—initiatives that build on and go beyond the positive work that has been done over the last several years, including the recent climate assessment by Diversity Directions.
We want each student to develop and express her individual voice, to find ways to enrich the whole community by sharing values, worldviews, and experiences that are specific to her.
Our commitment to inclusion and community‑building will go far beyond the student experience, as vital as that is. We will make progress on hiring, training, and retaining faculty and staff from different backgrounds, and recruit trustees whose breadth of backgrounds will enrich governance. We will recognize and celebrate the diversity of our families, and create opportunities for parents from a wide range of backgrounds to have a greater presence on campus and in conversations about the future. We will also review structural elements of life at Dana Hall—calendars, schedules, events—and revise them to promote collaboration and inclusion. Read on: Initiatives
Dana’s long history as a boarding school that draws students from across the United States and around the world, as well as a day school that attracts students from in and around Boston, creates a student experience few institutions can rival. Our identity as a day‑and‑boarding school with global reach and local roots is what makes Dana Hall so unique, so special, so vibrant.
From its earliest days, Dana Hall has been a place for students to live as well as to learn. Our long history as a boarding school that draws students from across the United States and around the world, as well as a day school that attracts students from in and around Boston, creates a student experience few institutions can rival. Our community has members who speak different languages, bring different customs, and live hundreds or thousands of miles from home. These students are surrounded by classmates whose families live close by and can provide an extra layer of support to boarders. Our identity as a day‑and‑boarding school with global reach and local roots is what makes Dana Hall so unique, so special, so vibrant.
We will expand the size and scope of our residential community by accelerating enrollment of boarding students from around the state, country, and world. We will learn more about perceptions of Dana Hall locally, nationally, and internationally, and communicate the unique attributes of residential life here, including the value of its location so close to Boston and its leadership in the arts, sciences, business, and technology. We will generate the resources to make the Dana Hall boarding experience available to the widest possible range of qualified students, and make Dana Hall even more attractive to all students.
We will also work to enhance the residential experience and deepen connections between boarding and day students and boarding and day families. We will continue renovating the dorms, assess policies for students who remain on campus during weekends, create more varied weekend programs, develop initiatives that bring more day students and their families to campus at night and on weekends, and build on programs that allow day students to experience boarding life. Read on: Initiatives
Dana Hall has been breaking new ground (literally) for decades, adding buildings and renovating existing structures so as to maintain and renew our formidable campus. Our aim is to renew the built environment to embody the Dana Difference, and to do so in ways that are creative, flexible, and financially prudent.
One of Dana Hall’s distinguishing features is its elegant and spacious campus, a peaceful setting just 15 miles from the energy and intensity of downtown Boston. Our 52‑acre grounds include four main academic buildings, Bardwell Auditorium, the Karen Stives ’68 Equestrian Center, the Shipley Center (athletics), the newly renovated Erisman Center (dining hall and student activities), the Helen Temple Cooke Library, six student dormitories, and 18 residential properties for faculty, staff, and administrators. Dana Hall has been breaking new ground (literally) on campus for decades, adding buildings and renovating existing structures so as to maintain a modern and well‑functioning physical environment.
Going forward, we will create new spaces, as well as leverage, enhance, and optimize existing facilities, to renew our formidable campus in the interests of academic rigor and vigor, competitive athletics, robust performing arts, and a vibrant and inclusive community of day students, boarding students, faculty, and staff. Our aim is to renew the built environment to embody the Dana Difference—a physical expression of what distinguishes the School’s mission and purpose—and to do so in ways that are creative, flexible, and financially prudent. In all of these plans, we will honor our long‑standing commitment to sustainability and sound environmental stewardship.
Our plans will reflect and build on the insights of the Dana Hall School Master Plan Update, which was finalized in June 2013, as well as the strategic priorities set forth in Vision 2025. Arriving at a final set of construction and renovation projects, and determining in which order they will unfold, will require deep discussion and engagement with faculty, staff, parents, students, and alumnae. But there is wide agreement on the overall priorities for the School’s places, spaces, and facilities. Read on: Initiatives
The scope and breadth of Dana Hall’s student body, faculty, staff, and campus is our greatest strength. It also creates an unusual degree of complexity for budgets, capital spending, and ongoing operations. We will continue to refine the School’s business model in order to keep us on a sustainable course, and respond to the broader financial challenges facing all independent schools.
The scope and breadth of Dana Hall’s student body, faculty, staff, and campus is our greatest strength, the heart of the Dana Difference. It also creates an unusual degree of complexity for budgets, capital spending, and ongoing operations. We teach students from 5th grade through high school; we serve a large population of day students who go home at night and a large population of boarding students who need 24‑hour‑a‑day attention; we maintain a stock of residential housing for faculty and administrators and a collection of signature facilities, such as our renowned equestrian center, that require ongoing investment.
We will continue to refine the School’s business model in order to keep us on a sustainable course, and respond to the broader financial challenges facing all independent schools. Dana Hall must continue to distinguish itself as a top‑tier independent school by committing sufficient resources to attract and retain the best faculty and administrators, while building and maintaining facilities that meet the needs of our students, curriculum, and programs. At the same time, Dana Hall must plan for a future in which tuition will not increase at the rate of expenses. Additionally, we must maintain and enhance our commitment to financial aid in order to continue to assemble a high‑quality and diverse student body.
To meet these important (and sometimes competing) goals, Dana Hall must dramatically increase its capital resources, through a combination of investment returns, capital contributions, and growth in the Dana Fund. To accomplish these objectives, we will continue to build the culture of philanthropy among alumnae and parents. Specifically, we will plan for a major capital campaign to grow the endowment and Dana Fund and secure Dana Hall’s financial future. Read on: Initiatives
A strategic plan is only as powerful as the sense of engagement it inspires and the innovations it unleashes. We hope every member of the Dana community, past and present, will work in some way, large or small, to help make the strategy a reality. We will need everyone’s ideas, suggestions, talents, and financial support. Now more than ever, Dana Hall needs your support, because now more than ever, the world needs the confident, compassionate, intellectually curious young women that Dana Hall helps to create.
That said, the release of Vision 2025 is merely the first step in our journey. A group of 41 members of the Dana community worked to create this strategy. We hope every member of the Dana community, past and present, will work in some way, large or small, to help make the strategy a reality. We will need everyone’s ideas, suggestions, talents, and financial support.
We pledge to provide regular updates as, together, we turn the aspirations outlined in Vision 2025 into concrete actions that enrich and extend the Dana Difference. Now more than ever, Dana Hall needs your support, because now more than ever, the world needs the confident, compassionate, intellectually curious young women that Dana Hall helps to create.