| Miss Porter's School | |
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Farmington, CT, USA | |
| Information | |
| Religion | None |
| Head of School | M. Burch Tracy Ford |
| Faculty | 53 |
| Student:teacher ratio | 8:1 |
| Average SAT scores (2007) | 1863 |
| Tuition | Boarding $38,520, Day $29,360
enrollment = 325 total |
| Campus | Township, 55 acres |
| Athletics | 29 Interscholastic Sports |
| Mascot | None; the Fighting Daisy is often mistakenly cited and much beloved as an unofficial mascot by many students |
| Color(s) | Green, white and black |
| Homepage | www.missporters.org |
Miss Porter's School, sometimes simply referred to as "Farmington," is a preparatory school for girls, located in Farmington, Connecticut. It was founded by education reformer Sarah Porter in 1843, with an eye to educating young women of the Eastern seaboard.
Contents |
History
Sarah Porter (August 17, 1813 – February 18, 1900) was the American educator who founded Miss Porter's School for Girls. She was born in Farmington, Connecticut to Congregational minister and famed preacher, the Rev. Noah Porter (1781-1866) and his wife, Mehitable "Hetty" Meigs Porter (1786-1874). She was educated at Farmington Academy and, uncharacteristically for women of the time, studied privately with Yale College professors. She taught in Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania, and returned to Connecticut in the 1840s to found a female counterpart to Simeon Hart's Academy for Boys. Initially she had only 25 students, but because of the school's expansive curriculum, including the sciences as well as the humanities, the daughters of the affluent soon made it their school of choice, and MPS quickly expanded. Porter was an opponent of women's suffrage but promoted other legal reforms for women. She was a serious, life-long scholar who spoke four languages and learned Hebrew in her 80s. Sarah Porter's older brother, Noah Porter, was President of Yale College from 1871 to 1886.
Miss Porter's School, still located in Farmington, today continues to operate as a private college preparatory school for ladies.
School endowment
The endowment is currently at a market value of $95 million. On September 20, 2005, Miss Porter's launched a new campaign, Moonbeams Over Manhattan. The intention is to increase the school's endowment to $100 million.
Athletics
Fall Interscholastics
- Cross Country V/JV
- Field Hockey V/JV
- Soccer V/JV/III
- Volleyball V/JV/III
- BadmittonV
Winter Interscholastics
- Basketball V/JV/III
- Skiing V
- Squash V/JV/III
- Swimming V
Spring Interscholastics
Notable alumnae
- Edith Hamilton (1886) - Greek Mythology scholar and sister of Alice Hamilton
- Alice Hamilton (1888) - First female faculty member of Harvard Medical School, founder of the field of Industrial Medicine
- Theodate Pope Riddle (1888) - Architect
- Ruth Hanna McCormick (1897) - First woman to run for the U.S. Senate.
- Dorothy Walker Bush (1919) - Mother of 41st President of the United States George H. W. Bush, grandmother of 43rd President George W. Bush
- Helen Coley Nauts (1925) - Founder of the Cancer Research Institute
- Barbara Hutton (1930) - American socialite, dubbed "Poor Little Rich Girl"
- Edith Bouvier Beale (1935) - "Little Edie," subject of the 1976 documentary Grey Gardens and the 2006 Broadway musical of the same name
- Gene Tierney (1938) - Academy Award-nominated actress
- Anne Cox Chambers (1938) - Former U.S. Ambassador to Belgium
- Ellen Violett (1941) - Television scriptwriter, Emmy Award nominee for The Experiment and Go Ask Alice
- Polly Allen Mellen (1942) - Editor with Vogue magazine
- Letitia Baldrige (1943) - Etiquette and public relations advisor
- Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (1947) - First Lady of the United States
- Lilly Pulitzer (née Lillian Lee McKim) (1949) - Fashion designer and American socialite
- Laura Rockefeller Chasin (1954) - American socialite
- Pema Chodron (formerly Deirdre Blomfield-Brown) (1955) - Buddhist nun and author; resident director of Gampo Abbey
- Agnes Gund (1956) - Former president, Museum of Modern Art
- Barbara Babcock (1955) - Emmy Award-winning actress, Hill Street Blues
- Rebecca Miller Harvey (1959) - Co-founder of Crabtree & Evelyn Ltd.
- Victoria Mudd (1964) - Documentary filmmaker, Academy Award for Broken Rainbow
- Milbrey Rennie Taylor (1964) - TV producer, 3 Emmys for CBS news coverage, 6 Emmys and Peabody Award for "CBS News Sunday Morning"
- Tina Shapleigh Schmid (1966) - Founder of Transition Systems, Inc., and president, Business Solutions Group at Eclipsys Corporation
- Heidi Ettinger (1969) - Tony Award-winning set designer, The Secret Garden
- Eliza Kimball (1969) - Senior political affairs officer, United Nations
- Elizabeth May (1972) - Leader of the Green Party of Canada
- Sandy Erickson Golinkin (1973) - Publisher, Lucky magazine
- Analisa Torres (1977) - Judge, New York City
- Dorothy Bush Koch (1977) - Philanthropist and First Family member
- Suzannah Grant Hendrickson (1980) - Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, Erin Brockovich, 28 Days, and Pocahontas: The Legend
- Elizabeth Wilcox (1985) - Co-founder, Strive Magazine and website
- Dina Merrill (née Nedenia Hutton) (date not available) - Actress and American socialite
- Brenda Frazier (date not available) - American socialite
- Gloria Vanderbilt (date not available) - Fashion designer and American socialite
Miss Porter's in fiction
- In the movie Holiday, the lead female, played by Katharine Hepburn, went to Miss Porter's.
- In the movie Mona Lisa Smile, the record for Joan (played by Julia Stiles) shows that she attended Miss Porter's though the record incorrectly locates the School in Pennsylvania.
- In the movie, The Skulls, the lead female went to Miss Porter's.
- In the musical Rent, one of the leads, Harvard-educated lesbian lawyer Joanne, attended and learned to tango with the French ambassador's daughter in her dorm room at Miss Porter's.
- In the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, when Buffy's mother thinks it would be best to send Buffy away to school, she picks up an application to Miss Porter's. Buffy incorrectly believes it is a Catholic girls school.
- In the television series Dynasty Blake Carrington's headstrong daughter Fallon Carrington (Pamela Sue Martin) is a graduate of Miss Porter's.
