In response to a recent "Rao Rumbles" — the anonymous comment or question box outside Jenny Rao's office — we followed Ms. Rao around with a camera to answer a student's great question about what fills a "typical day" for our Head of School!
-
At the office: Ms. Rao’s cozy office in Slocum, where she checks in for the day’s schedule and preps for her upcoming meetings with students, staff, and faculty.
2-3.) Morning Reports: Held in the Chapel on this day because Kiggins, the usual location, was being used for the winter play, Morning Reports boasted presentations from various student groups, remarks from Ms. Rao, and even a visit from alumna and trustee Linda Gill Anderson ’77.
4.) School Leadership: A meeting in the Head of School's office between Ms. Rao and recently appointed Board of Trustees member Linda Gill Anderson '77, who was able to visit the Emma Willard School campus for the first time since COVID began.
5.) Library Leadership: Stopping outside Kellas Dining Hall, Ms. Rao took a moment to peruse the selections put together by the Library Leadership Committee (a group of student leaders dedicated to making the library a safe, fun, and educational space for the Emma community) in anticipation of ample reading time over spring break.
6-7.) Many Meetings: Ms. Rao meets with Dean of Students and Wellbeing Shelley Maher, Head of Institutional Equity and Inclusion Christine Gilmore, and Interim Assistant Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Gemma Halfi.
5-6.) Heading Home: Ms. Rao heads home across campus, where she and her family spend a lot (every night!) of time together “talking about the world and travel, and what it means to be part of a global community.” Here, Ms. Rao and Santiago (12) take a photo in front of their world map, and she works on practicing ‘ea’ words before a spelling test for Ivan (8).
7.) Working on the Wordle: Every night Ms. Rao and her husband, Arjun, work on the daily Wordle with input from the boys (Santiago pictured here).
Jenny C. Rao, Emma Willard School's 17th Head of School
A current read from Ms. Rao’s own bookshelf: Inheritance by Dani Shapiro
