I’m a prefect this year in Armour, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to get to know girls from every form and watch them gain confidence throughout the year. As an underformer, my prefects really mentored me, and I try to do the same for the girls in my dorm. At night I like to spend time in the common room; sometimes I help with math homework or just hang out. Last year in Con20, my friends and I would play board games with Ms. Krasnoff when she was on duty. This year, Wednesday night is my favorite night of the week, because Ms. Boylan brings her dog to the dorm or common room — we all love Hinkley!
Community is so important here. I really think the reason that at St. Paul’s everyone is so close is because we see each other everywhere. It’s really special to be at a 100% boarding school.
CLARA, SIXTH FORMER
“When I revisited St. Paul’s, I saw smiling faces on the paths and people saying hi. Obviously, we’re all here to learn, but people also like to have fun. We’re here to be an orchestra, we’re here to play sports, but also we’re here for field day and those weekend activities.”
— Clara '26
Every Day is a Busy Day
I do sports, I do music, and I have my Applied Science and Engineering Program capstone right now, so every day is a busy day. I either wake up really early or right before it’s time to go to Chapel. A lot of times if I get up early I’ll go for a run — usually down to the boat docks. There’s this little trail that goes down to a gate and I’ll walk down there to look at the water and then go back. It’s a peaceful way to start my day.
Humanities
This is my second year in Mrs. Edwards’ humanities class — she was my teacher for Hum V last year and now American Foreign Policy. I just love her. I’ve always been pretty science focused, but she’s really helped me grow as a humanities student. I did a capstone paper for her about the Soviet-Afghan war and how that led to instability and the rise of terrorist groups in Afghanistan, and I was really proud of that.
Science
Science is definitely a big part of my experience, and the Lindsay Center is my favorite building on campus. As a runner, I’m really interested in sports biomechanics, and I did an ASEP internship this summer studying the biomechanics of how fish swim. I’ve been able to explore my interest in computer science in multiple classes with Mr. Rane — I’m taking his computational thinking class right now — which has influenced my desire to study computer engineering in college. I got into robotics as a Third Former, and now I’m one of the Robotics Team captains.
Orchestra
I play French horn in the orchestra, and I take lessons from Mr. Pandolfi, who’s the head of the Arts Department. I’ve been playing since I was six, which is early, but I begged my parents, and by the time I was in fifth grade I was taking it pretty seriously. My biggest improvement definitely was when I came to St. Paul’s, though, because you can take music classes and also play in the orchestra, and Mr. Pandolfi is a really good teacher.
The Power of Personal Connections
I can’t say enough about the teacher relationships here. That’s really a huge part of what makes St. Paul’s so special. During robotics season I run with Ms. Pine, who’s my head cross country coach — I’ll just email her and we’ll go for a four-mile run. Last year, my friends Harry, Vicky and I started keeping a tally of how many times we visited Ms. Dalal’s classroom just to hang out with her. I stopped counting during Winter Term, but we were already up to 120.