Global Studies students engage in meaningful and contemplative travel. Our students have tracked wild game and set camera traps in South Africa, volunteered in medical facilities in West Virginia, hiked Machu Picchu in Peru, and visited Holy Child Network Schools in Ireland and New York City. 

These travel opportunities are designed not only to provide unique and enriching experiences for our students to learn, study and serve but also for them to return to the classroom ready to share their experiences.

Global trips focus on areas such as community service, cultural immersion, historical education, curricular connections, and more. Global Programs trips occur over Spring Break and the summer months and connect us to communities both near and far. Although most trips are offered to Upper School students, some trips are designed for Middle School students, and some trips are grade-specific.

The Advanced Humanities Institute is a two-year program for juniors and seniors where students learn, at an advanced level, how to make sense of society, culture, and art while visiting important cultural sites nearby and abroad. Combining a rigorous curriculum in the arts, cultural theory, social science, and psychology, students learn in this program how to become engaged citizens, sensitive and perceptive cultural observers, and convincing and powerful thinkers. 

In the summer following the first year of the program, students attend a summer fieldwork trip to a new location each year and other sites of cultural and social importance. Students explore important landmarks, experience beautiful art and culture, and process what they see in nightly research salons. Travel always involves engaging discussions, perceptive journaling and analysis, and the opportunity to create art. The second year of this program is devoted to an Advanced Humanities Research Seminar where students will work on a capstone project or portfolio based on their interests and work in the program.

The Engineering, Architecture, and Design program is an innovative, two-year program for juniors and seniors that provides an interdisciplinary STEAM curriculum that combines the study of art and architecture with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The second year of this program is dedicated for students to work on a capstone project or portfolio based on their interests and work in the program.

This distinctive program is designed to push back against the absentee culture of women in the fields of engineering and architecture while acknowledging that our students are better served when their work has an anchor to real-world issues. By clearly demonstrating the connections between disciplines and peoples, this course inspires and prepares our girls for advanced study in fields often dominated by men.

The Leadership Institute in Finance is a two-year seminar course for juniors and seniors designed to empower girls to master financial literacy, explore business ethics, and develop effective leadership skills to prepare for competitive internships and careers in finance. This course seeks to encourage students to consider professions where women are a minority and to help them develop the skills and confidence to be successful in these roles.

The year-long junior seminar includes a one-week immersion experience during spring break, where students will begin to define the area of finance or leadership that will become the subject of their senior project. In their senior year, students will complete a senior thesis by developing a business plan for a new product concept, or research an issue in finance or leadership as it relates to business. It is the goal of the program to have a financial executive mentor the project and provide shadowing opportunities at their company.