The Ethel Walker School Welcomed Olympic Athlete and Simsbury Native Sara Hendershot as Opening Chapel Speaker

SIMSBURY, CT  September 7, 2012 –  The Walker’s campus buzzed with activity and energy during Opening Days.   Pre-season athletes have been hard at work since the end of August, boarding and day students - new and returning - have descended upon campus, and the Opening Day Chapel and Banquet provided magical moments and remarks.   2012 Olympic rower, and Simsbury native, Sara Hendershot delivered an inspirational address. 

“My advice to all of you would be to use this year to get to know yourself.  This is the time to do it.  Find something that you love, and push yourself to master it as well as you can.  If you never push your own limits, you will have no idea how far you can go,” said Hendershot.  Following the Chapel, Hendershot attended the school banquet, mingling and talking openly with students and other members of the school community.  Afterwards she remarked, “After spending only a couple hours on campus, I have no doubt there is something special going on at Walker’s and that the students are really something else.”

The bedrock of Walker’s is very much the same as when the School was founded over 100 years ago.  As Head of School, Bessie Speers, commented during Opening Chapel, “We have much to thank Ethel Walker for – her vision, tenacity, and conviction that girls deserved and should receive a top-notch education, preparing them for the nation’s finest colleges. She believed that the academic program was the foundation upon which all else is built. She also wanted this education to happen in a place that was warm, compassionate and like a family. Today, we are very much that school.”

Walker’s opens its 101^st academic year with an enrollment of 260 students, a 9% increase over last year.  Students from 15 countries – including Afghanistan and Somalia - and 23 states arrived on campus Monday and Tuesday.    Walker’s boarding population – 62% of the student body - is at capacity.