 Good afternoon and welcome to Moments with Melinda. I am your host, Melinda Moulton, and today I have Jennifer Saccaro, the head of school of Vermont Academy as my guest. Jennifer, thank you for being here. Thank you, I'm so honored to be here. I'm really excited. I've known you now for quite a while and I've always been so intrigued about your life and your work and about Vermont Academy. And so I really am so honored to have you with me today on Moments with Melinda. So let's start right off. I would love to know a little bit about your childhood. And before we start, I do want to wish you a happy birthday. Oh, thank you so much. Because you just had a birthday and I want to wish you happy birthday. I did on Monday, it was terrific. Thank you. You did. So can you share with us a little bit about your childhood? Of course, I actually come from a family of educators. My father was a teacher when I was very young and later he went into business and my relatives going back to a great grandfather in Italy were teachers and that great grandfather was a professor at the University of Matera. So learning was highly valued, very exciting. I had a lot of outdoor experiences when I was young and honestly Melinda coming to Vermont felt very familiar to me because I grew up in Connecticut when Connecticut looked like Vermont does now and it wasn't all built up with those strip malls and things like that. So it really felt so comfortable to be here and part of my decision to come. So did you come from a big family? Yeah, well, I have four in my family but I had a first cousins where I was very close to with 10 children and five on the other side. So we were just a very close knit, larger family network. So tell us a little bit about who had the most impact and who was most instrumental in your life to help you to choose your path in life that brought you to where you are today? Yeah, it definitely was my father and I don't know how many women say that about their dads and good for dads that they do such a good job but my father for each of us we realized this after he passed away as my siblings and I were chatting and reminiscing that he had these what he called object lessons where he would take a moment when it arrived and he knew it was a teaching moment and he would stop everything and just focus on us and individually give us a little anecdote about something and make it come alive. And some of us had the same stories told but many of us had completely different ones. So we were sharing all of these stories that were seminal moments in our childhood from a man who really understood that taking the time like that pays dividends going forward because we then do it with our children and so on. I love hearing stories about father's impacts on their daughters. I think that's really, really special. So what would you say was one of his most important lessons that he taught you Jennifer? Well, the first one that comes to mind is one that I've shared often with my own students and I was learning to drive. I had my permit at 15 and I think we had this big old Oldsmobile 98 car that it was new at the time but it's rather large compared to the cars that are around now and it had a big steering wheel and I was trying to navigate up a hill toward our house and my father said pull over and I looked at him very afraid that he was gonna yell at me and he said are you driving the car or is the car driving you? And I said the car is definitely driving me, definitely. And he said, you know, fix it, turn it around, you are the navigator. And I have used that, it really was a metaphor for me though I didn't, at the moment I was really nervous that I was disappointing my dad but that idea that you have to steer your own ship and that circumstances can kind of push you in directions and then you're not really, you're not making choices. And so I've pulled aside many students over the years who really were not directing their lives and this one boy actually painted it on the ceiling of his dorm window. Are you driving the car? And I said, oh no, we're gonna have to repaint that after you leave but, you know, the story, it was just so simple but it had great impact. It's sort of like the whole concept of initiative. Yes. You know, find your path and walk your walk. That's a beautiful lesson for your father to have given you and one that you can partake with your students. So let's talk a little bit. You are, you say that now people say head of school. Now in my day, it would be headmaster and you are the head of school, the headmaster at Vermont Academy, which is one of just a few private preparatory schools in Vermont. Can you just tell us a little bit about Vermont Academy and why is the school so important to Vermont? It's a very special place. We are approaching our 150th anniversary in 2026. We're nestled in Saxons River on a hill and we have 450 acres and our whole approach, which we call the Vermont Academy way of teaching and learning is really rooted in the state of Vermont and our land. So we have a strategic plan with four pillars and two of them are so relevant to Vermont and they are community and land. So our early founders really laid down that track of learning by doing, of learning in nature of the importance of community and citizenship and character. And each head of school who came along really carried that mantle forward. I think very often schools frequently try to reinvent themselves with a headmasters or a head of schools vision, but that has remained constant and that core is there and part of our sense of purpose in educating students. We have a beautiful campus. It's very historic and the view from the playing fields really captures everything that is Vermont because you can also see Saxons River and the church steeples and it just looks like a painting. So our close personal attention is very important as well. We're a small school, we're about 200 and we hope to grow a little bit more to 230 as part of our strategic plan, but we don't wanna get very big as some of the other boarding schools are 500, 600,000 students because we really want to be continuing that authenticity of relationship with understanding students and really crafting a path for them with them that is distinct and will help them as they pitch themselves to college and into careers. It's so interesting as I just went to my high school, my 55th high school reunion and we had 57 kids in my graduating class and a quarter of our class of course has passed on, but one of the things that came out of the reunion that we were saying to each other is that we were like a family, that we knew each other and we were all close. You couldn't have a click because there weren't enough people to be clicky. And so that's how I feel a little bit, but I've been to Vermont Academy many times. My husband is a graduate. Yes, that's right. Yes, he is and I've asked him because he's gone to other schools and I've always said to him, where do you feel the most connected and the most love? And he always says it's Vermont Academy, that that's where he made his most notable friendships, who by the way, he's still very close to today. So thank you for that overview of Vermont Academy. Could you share with us a little bit about some of the notables? You've got some very wonderful people who have graduated from Vermont Academy. Could you share with us a little bit about those folks? We do, we do. Nobody's more notable than our current students. I have to say, but our really most important alumni award is given in honor of Florence Saban. And I'm proud to say that our school was coed to begin with, which was really rare in those days. And Florence went on to, she had laboratory science here, which is also unusual in the late 1800s. I think it was 1898 was her class. And she went on to study at Smith and then to be the first female professor at Johns Hopkins. She founded the Colorado State Healthcare and just was really a seminal figure. Her statue is in the Capitol as well. So we have a Florence Saban award that we give out for distinguished alumni. One of our earliest assistant heads of school who came with the then head from Colgate, we had a really strong connection with Colgate in our early years because of that Baptist foundation at both schools. And this man assistant head was James P. Taylor who founded the Long Trail. And he actually was creating a trail and trailblazing opportunities for Vermont Academy students trying to get them out of their dorm rooms. So now we are always focused on getting kids away from screens. But if you can imagine, they were cozy in their dorm rooms with their friends. And he thought trailblazing and really getting out and understanding what he called the grand campus of Vermont itself meant for Vermont Academy students would be a wonderful design. And while he was doing this, he came up with a larger idea for the Long Trail and then took it forward and moved up to Burlington. And I have seen some beautiful lantern slides at the University of Vermont that Rick showed me, Rick Moulton showed me that capture Vermont Academy students with James P. Taylor. We also have Paul Harris, the founder of the Rotary Club, graduated from Vermont Academy. And again, there's that Vermont idea of business and tinkering and getting out in the community. So we're very proud there as well. And we have a lot of inventors. Russell Porter created the Palomar Telescope, George Cheney, the Hubble Telescope. And we have our own observatory here, which is wonderful. It's in a barn and the roof slides open. And we have telescopes and students looking up at the skies to this day. And the list goes on and then there are some wonderful, Joe Perry graduated from Vermont Academy. And well, he may have missed the very ending ceremony, I have to say. But we all know to be the lead guitarist for Aerosmith and I could go on and on. But I'm very proud of all of these graduates. And we have a wall with their stories in our main hall here in Fuller. And students are often stopping and reading the biographies. They're just so varied and interesting and inspiring. And they help them to realize that these people were at the same place where they are now and they have possibilities for their lives that are similar. So how open to the public is Vermont Academy? I mean, if somebody wanted to come down and walk through the campus, is it accessible? Yes, it was only during COVID that we really had to have restrictions. And recently we actually just had a big event with Robert Shetterly, painter, creator of the truth tellers program on Sunday and Monday. And he exhibited his works in the Horowitz building and spoke in the Needed Chukka's theater. And we showed his film and this was open to the community. And we invited, we actively advertised to have everybody come and see it. So our arts are thriving here and our theater program, our visual arts, performing arts. And so we invite the community in for those things. And then we also have a strong following of local people who come to our games. So that's really fun. We have three basketball players in the pros at our little school here. We've got Bruce Brown, Jordan Nora and Simi Shitu. And we also have Olympians and so on. So it's just really great to see this little small powerhouse and we have a fan base. I find it extraordinary that you, that Vermont Academy was co-ed back in the late 1800s. I mean, how rare was that? I mean, women, school teachers were not allowed to be married. I mean, women were so isolated and disenfranchised during this period. I mean, how rare and progressive was that, Jennifer? It was very rare. I haven't found another school. I'm sure there is if I did a thorough search, but I just had a gift from alumnus Art Kelton. He sent me these gorgeous framed pictures of a production in 1920, oh no, wait, it was 1911, but women got the vote in 1920 and it was a play all about, they had protests around campus with signs saying women need the vote. And then there was a play that was all about that. And I didn't notice I had to look closely our director of health services said, those are all men dressed as women. So it was little Shakespearean there, but they were clearly having a lot of fun, but also very dedicated in 1911 to this cause that would not come to fruition until a few years later. So I credit that to the high-mindedness of these Baptist ministers who founded the school. They were very progressive. And one of them was Levi Fuller who married into the SD Oregon family in Brattleboro and really gave a lot to build the first buildings at the school and they were open-minded people. We also were, Melinda, you'll be really interested in this. We were very diverse from the beginning because they gave free access to Vermont Academy to all missionaries children. So we had children from all over the world from the beginning. And as I was looking at the rosters in the University of Vermont archives, I couldn't believe all the countries that these kids were from. And that's true today. We have students from, I believe it's 22 countries around the world. And that's- I mean, Jennifer, to my viewers, I'm talking to Jennifer Zaccaro, who is the head of school for Vermont Academy. That is just, that's an exceptional story. And I wanna move on for a second. You mentioned the Olympics. And Vermont Academy is a very strong sports program. And for a school that's small, 200 students could become 230 at some point down the road but a small school, you win a lot of titles and you've got a lot of extraordinary athletes and you have a history of Olympians. So would you share a little bit about that? Yeah, I think Melinda that it's rooted in the fact that healthy competition is so much a part of our lives here. I think competition can have a negative connotation but not here. We do a strength finder test when students arrive and they discover their top five strengths and kind of work from there to build out their program. It's a Clifton Strengths test. And we found out that our students all share competition is one of their top five. And that also is very rare. So they encourage each other and it could be that you're going to be competitive and strive for your best in your painting class. It doesn't have to be athletics but we encourage each other and it's part of our heritage. Warren Chivers was our first Olympian that I know of and I wish I had met this man. He was a four event skier but I believe he was a jumper and an Nordic competitor in the 1938 Olympics. And he came here with Larry Levitt who was a Dartmouth scholar athlete and was the head of school for 25 years and couldn't be any longer, maybe 28 but Warren really established our whole outdoor program went back to the legacy of James P. Taylor in the long trail and then built out his ski program and we've had many, many fantastic skiers graduate from Vermont Academy. Our most recent Olympians were Brooke Mooney who rode on the women's eight in the last Olympics and she is the daughter of Jim Mooney former head of school here. And then Simi Shitu who I mentioned played for his home country on a basketball team and he is now on the Orlando magic. Wow, amazing. I mean, I saw that when I was down there of all the trophies that you all have won as a small school. So you're doing something right and these young people are getting a terrific education. So you were the first woman head of school, headmaster. Yes, Vermont Academy in 150 years. So what are the joys and the challenges that you are feeling in this role? Well, the joys are that I'm really focused on and watching the population of girls grow here and thrive. We are really wanting to get to that magic number of 50, 50 girls and boys. It is the case that many families don't send their daughters away until the sophomore or junior year. So that is working against that goal. But at the same time, to see our girls really thriving is really important to me. And for them to see me in this position helps them to realize possibilities as well. You know, I met, I had the luxury of interviewing Madeline Albright at a prior school that I was at. And before she got up on the stage, she said to me, I bet you've been in a lot of boardrooms with a lot of men. And I said, how did you know, like some sort of naive woman? But she's such an inspiration for women. And I'd say the challenges, because you had asked me about that too, are just really, we've had a wonderful increase in diversity on our board. And getting mindsets to open up beyond maybe what was traditionally here when Larry was heading the school and doing such a great job, it was all, the school did go to all boys when he was head. And so that was about from 1935 until 1976 or thereabouts. Other heads came after him in that period. But because he had come from Dartmouth and Dartmouth was all boys, that was more familiar to him. And the school became all boys for a little while. So just as any other school would go through transition time in coeducation, we have had the same. But we have that wonderful original time that I am pulling back. And Dorothy Levitt, Larry's wife, called it the era of the lost generation. It was a little bit like the Hemingway analog there with Hemingway Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein. So I'm really actively drawing on that those early days of the school to really help everyone to recall now that we are coed and that even though there were those great sort of golden years and a lot of the alumni, the imaginations of alumni who were here when it was all boys, we have that dimension now and more. Do you know a lot happened in American history during that time, which we were all sort of scratching our heads about. But I think Vermont Academy gets a huge kudo for starting out as a coed school, only not being coed for a short period of time when our country was going through a lot of weird stuff. Certainly. That was very anti-female. And then coming back to it and now having their first female headmaster, head of school, which just warms the cockles of my heart. And I'm sure of many other people out there that you're in this role and that you're leading this incredible school. I have a lot that I want to talk to you about, but we are getting close to the end of our show. So I want to talk to you about what do you envision the future of education looking like in today's world of the 21st century? That's an exciting question for me. I actually moved from being a full-time teacher into administration because of that question. I love tradition, but I also love the future and right now it's so important for us to inspire our young people because we're divided as a country and we're facing so many just negative messages that come all the time through the media. And so if you imagine or if you watch young people when they're hearing these conversations, adults are having their heads kind of start to go down and I want to bring it up and have them realize that they have agency to make a better world. So I see education in answer to a question really moving into even more of what we do best, which is hands-on experiences. So we're trying to develop some opportunities for students to move into communities, solve community problems, work side-by-side with community organizers, learn how to take an idea, a concept into a product. I'm very inspired by Northeastern's co-op program that's been around for a while program. And they have students graduating with their resume as well as their transcript. And so they've got work experience and we have many area businesses that are interested in having Vermont Academy students get some work experience as well. So we want to have that practical dimension part of students experience. And then they also really need to be nimble and flexible. I know these are terms that are bandied about a lot right now, but you have to be able to invent your own job too. You have to be able to manage your own business or manage your life as you're in between jobs because the world is so rapidly changing. So that kind of social emotional learning and wherewithal and confidence is really important as well. Getting kids out of the lecture hall and into the real world. I so wish I had that in my day. This is so exciting. I wish I was young enough to go to Vermont Academy. I regret that I did not go to Vermont Academy. It's such an exciting school. And to all my viewers, Jennifer Zaccaro is the headmaster, head of school at Vermont Academy. Jennifer, if my viewers would like to get in touch with you or to learn more about Vermont Academy, can you tell us how they can do that? Absolutely. If you go to our website, you'll see all of our emails and phone numbers and that's the easiest way to get it rather than translating it right now, but I'm just so eager to reach out and to hear from everyone. I'm just going to a Rockingham Planning Board Commission meeting tonight and I am actively involved in the village of Saxons River deciding what to do with the building and how to reinvent spaces. So it's important to me to be connected with community. I moved into the village from the traditional head's house for that reason. So please do reach out and that's how to find us. Just go to our website and you'll see my email. And what is the website? Vermontacademy.org or Vermontacademy.org. Go to the website. It's a fabulous website. If you're down in Saxons River, stop in to the school. Please do. It's a beautiful campus. It's one of the most beautiful campuses and the buildings are extraordinary. And so we have a few minutes here. I wanted to ask you how you coped with COVID because you stayed open. You kept the school open and running, Jennifer. We did. Yes. It's so important for students to have in-person instruction and to going through a pandemic when there were so many restrictions, if they were further isolated at home, it would have been so difficult. So my heart goes out to all the public school teachers and others who had to go through that for longer than we did. We were just very, we were vigilant. We had mask wearing protocols. We tested regularly and we put in air filtration units in every classroom. We had tents outside, depending the weather. And so we just, we had one case, the first year of COVID, one case of COVID. The second year, it was when the restrictions were lifted, we had a few more coming back from winter break, but not more than about a dozen. So those are really good numbers actually. And we just basically had a COVID planning team that met once a week. I also was in dialogue with two different heads groups in the lakes region, which is our athletic competitive league. And then also through A's knee, the Association of Independent Schools of New England. I have loved this half hour with you. I would love to spend a day with you, which someday we will do, but I'd love to have you on my show again. Jennifer Sikaro, any last thoughts to my viewers that you'd like to share any more words of wisdom? Yes, I'll just say that we have been historically as a school, not waving our banner in the state of Vermont enough. And we are Vermonters, and we love this day and everything that is a part of our educational philosophy is really rooted here. So I just, we're gonna be doing more and more to reach out to the community, make sure you know we're here and that we're accessible for students. We have some really great ways in which students can come to Vermont when they think they couldn't afford it. And so reach out to admissions as well. Vermon Academy has been around for 150 years to my viewers, 150 years. It is a extraordinary school on a beautiful campus and it has created so many wonderful human beings who have done so much to change our world. And so I encourage you to visit their website, vermonacademy.org, and to reach out to Jennifer if you're interested in learning more about the school. And Jennifer, I just wanna tell you that I am going to paint on my ceiling to drive my own car. I think that message from your father that resonates today with us to walk your walk and make sure that you drive your own life. And when you get battered about by other things that you steady up and you stay on your own path and stay really true to yourself, that's the message today, that you have really left us through your father. And for that I wanna thank you. I wanna thank you for your time and for your dedication to the school. And I'm so proud that you are the first female to run Vermont Academy after 150 years. I think that's a milestone and that you should be honored for that. And for that I do honor you and I'm honored to call you my friend. So. Well, Ditto and I just wanna thank you Melinda for all the great work you've done for the state of Vermont and most recently with that train track going down. I'm just really excited and you've done a great job. Thank you for your work. Thank you. So to my viewers, I thank you for being with us today and I will see you shortly. Enjoy the rest of your day.