The Nightingale Fund

While our fall reopening required a variety of new health and safety protocols, the hiring of additional faculty support was essential to meeting the demands of our new day-to-day routines. With that, the Faculty Fellows Program was born! Thanks to the support of our community, a total of 17 full-time Faculty Fellows have been hired to date, 12 of whom are alumnae ranging from the Class of 2006 to 2016. Fellows have quickly become vital to our program and bring their own experience to the forefront, providing critical support in the classroom, managing community times, monitoring our health screenings, supervising check in, managing classes for our Hawks@Home faculty, and so much more.

Today, more than ever, technology is vital to the learning experience. Thanks to the support of donors like you, all students K-XII, whether learning in person or as Hawks@Home, are active classroom participants. From logging in to divisional assemblies or engaging in a lively small group discussion, our faculty have the ability to teach in real-time. What a way to step into our second century!

With the wellbeing of our community top of mind in planning our fall reopening, it became increasingly important to provide the means for our students and teachers to safely travel to and from Nightingale. Your generosity allows us to ensure that transportation is not a barrier to returning through the blue doors each day—whether traveling from an outer borough or feeling uneasy about public transportation, Nightingale has implemented a private bus system for our students and faculty. From Brooklyn to downtown Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx, we are grateful to offer this opportunity to our community!

Class II students visited the Queens Museum to kick off their year-long study of New York City. Students took in the panoramic model of New York City, which brought to life the flat maps of all five boroughs they studied in the classroom. The model, originally built in 1964, contains more than 850,000 buildings and is built on a scale of 1" to 100'. After a museum tour, students participated in an art project where they built cardboard models of a city block. This trip set the stage for what is to come during this exciting year of learning about their city through frequent field trips, hands-on projects, books, photos, and online media. Learning about New York from the ground up gives our students a head start on building the relationships so key to a Nightingale education.

The Peer Leader Group Program is designed to offer both mentor and leadership skill-building opportunities to select seniors. Led by specialized faculty Jenny McFeely, LCSW-R, Director of Counseling, and Rachael Lewiton, LCSW, Middle School Counselor, the program directly links to the social-emotional support initiatives being implemented in both Middle and Upper School.

Peer leaders help Class VII and Class IX students and support them through managing academics, resolving conflict, wise decision-making, and more. Peer leaders direct advising sessions each cycle and meet regularly to debrief and plan for their next lesson in response to the particular needs of their group. Younger students benefit from trusted relationships and peer leaders build life-long leadership skills.

Your gift supports our commitment to global and cultural competency. The classroom transcends the blue doors, and your support provides opportunities for our students to follow their curiosity and question circumstances beyond our walls. Through this, they become empowered leaders, critical thinkers, and agents of their own lives.

Last fall, Aisling Kennedy ’21, and two faculty members traveled to India for the 2019 Round Square Conference. Over the course of her 10-day stay, Aisling heard from keynote speakers who expanded upon the ideas shared in breakout groups, participated in service projects, and took in the local sights. “After discussing global issues with students from around the world, I more fully understand that when we come together, we are so much stronger,” said Kennedy.

Over 100 community members were welcomed through the blue doors to experience The Classroom Revisited, a special Centennial event. The day offered a unique opportunity to attend various classes and the chance to experience the magic of a Nightingale education.

The Nightingale Fund allows us to adapt our curriculum, adjust to the needs of our students and community, and attract top faculty and administrative leaders. Event attendees were able to experience the benefit of this first-hand as they saw the relationships in the Schoolhouse in action.

Your annual support ensures that Nightingale remains a school on the move and furthermore, allows us to offer community-wide events that honor our school as one that stands A Century Strong.

The Nightingale Find supports cornerstone academic programs like the Middle School Debate. We couldn't run this program, whose expenses include registration fees, judge stipends, and faculty compensation, without the support of our generous donors.

Nightingale offers a Middle School debate club and debate team of students from classes VII and VIII to provide extra intellectual rigor for students who crave it. These self-motivated, dedicated debaters spend two enrichment periods each cycle performing the necessary research, building their case, and participating in practice debates.

This seminal Middle School experience provides experience formulating an argument and delivering it directly, using rhetoric and emotion, and learning from failure when a tight competition is lost.