Every girl achieves her own boundless vision of success.
Empower each girl to learn, to lead, and to live a legacy.
The Agnes Irwin School Core Values
The Agnes Irwin School’s core values—excellence, character, community, and respect—are singular ideas. This strategic plan evolves these values to be more action-oriented and meaningful, to better encapsulate all that drives us, and to affirm our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.
Our School’s Core Values
Our Core Values are the code by which we live—the principles upon which we make our decisions. They are the heart and soul of The Agnes Irwin School.
Lead With Character
We are courageous leaders who model empathy and compassion. We embody honesty, kindness, and personal integrity in all that we say and do.
Strive For Excellence
We encourage and support each other to tenaciously reach our fullest potential as we demonstrate resilience and champion greatness in all our pursuits.
Respect and Celebrate All
We treat all with dignity and respect, welcoming differences in backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives. We foster an inclusive environment where everyone is valued, contributions are celebrated, and community is cherished.
Nurture Passions and Wellbeing
We nurture a love of learning and academic success by cultivating individual passions and the pursuit of our own unique path, supporting the whole person in wellness and wellbeing.
Foster Trust and Community
We build trust through openness and understanding, fostering supportive relationships, deep connections, safe risk-taking, and the space to be our best selves.
Our Strategic Commitments
To realize a future where every girl achieves her own boundless vision of success, these are the learning outcomes we seek.
We Commit To:
Intellectual Curiosity
We will inspire creativity, innovation, and collaboration among students and colleagues.
We Commit To:
Personal Wellbeing
We will support wellness of body and mind as essential to the academic journey and lifelong fulfillment.
We Commit To:
Authentic Inclusivity
We will foster inclusion and belonging, instill equity, and embrace diverse perspectives and people.
We Commit To:
Courageous Leadership
We will lead our school, and each other, toward ideas and solutions that positively impact community.
Intellectual Curiosity
We commit to inspiring creativity, innovation, and collaboration among students and colleagues.
- Meaningfully integrate principles of applied learning and design thinking into inspiring, immersive experiential opportunities which enhance the excellence of our academic program and cultivate entrepreneurial women leaders.
- Recruit, support, and retain faculty and staff dedicated to girls’ education and inspired to collaboratively design an innovative, cross-disciplinary experience for every student.
- Realize the facilities Master Plan to ensure our physical learning spaces encourage and inspire innovation, creativity, and collaboration for students and educators.
- Expand endowment efforts to fund the innovation of our program and learning environments.
- Develop AIS’ community-wide understanding of the school’s core value to “Strive for excellence” and the role educators can play in realizing this value.
“At Agnes Irwin, we coach our girls to discover and strive for excellence – on their terms. I am proud to have contributed to the process that has identified and codified this expectation for every AIS student.”
Luisa Contreiras P’29, Trustee
Personal Wellbeing
We commit to supporting wellness of body and mind as essential to the academic journey and lifelong fulfillment.
- Integrate social-emotional and mental health programming throughout academics, athletics, and arts curricula as necessary ingredients to success and wellbeing.
- Provide faculty and staff with wellness training and resources to support themselves and our students.
- Maximize academic, athletic, and arts facilities to enable our community members to nurture physical and mental wellness.
- Ensure adequate funding to implement wellness initiatives that support the health and wellbeing of the entire AIS community.
- Develop AIS’ community-wide understanding of how the school’s core value to “Nurture passions and wellbeing” can support the mental, emotional, and physical health needs of each girl.
“I am more optimistic than ever about the school’s future and where we are headed. I am especially confident in the leadership guiding the priorities of our new strategic plan. In particular, I look forward to seeing how we will lead the way for girls’ schools in prioritizing mental health and overall wellness and wellbeing.”
Sean McCarthy P’18, ’20, ’23, ’26 | Strategic Planning Steering Committee Co-Chair and Trustee
Authentic Inclusivity
We commit to fostering inclusion and belonging, instilling equity, and embracing diverse perspectives and people.
- Fully integrate skills development to emphasize active listening, self-awareness, respect, and care for one another; recognizing that in creating space for disagreement and divergent viewpoints we can form true connection.
- Deliver an academic experience that uplifts diverse and under-represented perspectives, cultures, and lived experiences and promotes cultural competence and global mindedness.
- Prioritize recruitment and retention of faculty and staff to reflect the diverse community we aim to serve.
- Reimagine our spaces and places through the lens of inclusivity and ensure that every member of our school community can see themselves reflected and welcomed throughout.
- Ensure adequate funding for DEIB commitments including recruitment of faculty and staff and a socio-economically diverse student body through increased secondary sources of revenue and endowment growth.
- Develop AIS’ community-wide understanding of the school’s core value of “Respect and celebrate all” and the role that educators can play in realizing this value.
“The new strategic plan really puts the priority on strengthening our whole community, whether that’s our wellbeing, our sense of belonging and inclusivity, our leadership abilities, or deepening our intellectual curiosity as we strive for excellence each day.”
Maggie Powers, Director of Curriculum & Learning Innovation
Courageous Leadership
We commit to leading our school, and each other, toward ideas and solutions that positively impact community.
- Clarify and articulate our thought-leading philosophy in girls’ education, research, and development—and the role all AIS programs, including the Center for the Advancement of Girls, play in achieving it.
- Deepen relationships within our community and leverage external partnerships to broaden opportunities for students to develop as creative, entrepreneurial, and globally-minded leaders.
- Cultivate a trusting and confidence-building work environment in which colleagues are empowered to develop their expertise, contribute ideas, and lead.
- Enhance existing spaces to be more open, nimble, inspiring, and reflective of the 21st century learning experience designed for AIS students.
- Develop AIS’ community-wide understanding of the school’s core values of “Foster trust and community” and “Lead with character” and the role that educators can play in realizing these values.
“During this process, we had the opportunity to hear from and collaborate with all of our constituents: students, faculty, staff, administrators, parents, alumnae, and trustees past and present. We are grateful for their insights and engagement. What was clear through each conversation is that we are part of a community where every decision starts and ends with what is best for the girls. That is powerful. This plan finds the magic in paradox: nurture and challenge; traditions and innovation; the individual and community. I am excited to see this plan in action. Our future is bright—for each girl.”
Susan Hirtle McEvoy ’00, P’31, ’34 | Strategic Planning Steering Committee Co-Chair and Trustee
Our Process
Scan Phase
October – December 2o21
A Steering Committee was formed comprised of members of our faculty and staff, parents, AIS alumnae, and Trustees. In partnership with Mission Minded, committee members deeply studied the state of the school through interviews and a community-wide survey and immersed themselves in research around topics such as demographics, diversity, technology, pedagogy, and the economy. A comprehensive SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) Analysis was developed, and a Situation Analysis was shared with the Board of Trustees.
Envision phase
January – March 2022
Building on the SCAN phase of work, and in partnership with our consultant, the Steering Committee identified the school’s distinguishing characteristics and areas of vulnerability. The Steering Committee iterated with school leadership on Vision and Values statements which were adopted by the Board while also reaffirming a slight revision to our Mission Statement. Finally, the committee considered this essential question as they set strategic commitments for the school: What commitments must The Agnes Irwin School make to ensure every girl achieves her own boundless vision of success?
Create phase
April – June 2022
Four Strategic Commitments were affirmed by the Steering Committee at the onset of the CREATE phase enabling the broader AIS community, including faculty, staff, parents, and Trustees, to ideate about the priorities needed to realize them. The entire AIS community was invited to participate in group discussions and then weighed in on the importance of the ideas that surfaced through a community-wide survey. The resulting priorities were refined by the Steering Committee and presented to the Board of Trustees with its unanimous support, as well as the unanimous support of Sally and her leadership team.
With Gratitude To The Committee
Contact Us About Our Strategic Plan
To realize a future where each girl achieves her own boundless vision of success, we commit to intellectual curiosity, personal wellbeing, authentic inclusivity, and courageous leadership.
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