About
Head of School Polly Fredlund
Welcome to Westover!
Westover is designed for students to take center stage. Built on the powerful advantages of a girl-centered environment, students learn to lead with courage, competence, and empathy.
Our founder Mary Hillard believed in the transformative power of education. She imagined a world for women that was bigger and brighter than the one she found before her in 1909. This visionary spirit continues to guide us today as we educate young women to lead lives of consequence.
Students at Westover learn to lead inside the distinctive experience of living and learning in a small community with a commitment to inclusive excellence. Students discover a multitude of pathways to develop their leadership skills through identifying their passions, collaborating with others, and seeing themselves as a leader as they become one.
Westover students step out into the world equipped with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to make a lasting impact. I am inspired to lead a school community built on an unshakeable belief in the transformative power of education and the limitless potential of our students.
Joyfully,
Polly Oppmann Fredlund P’25
Head of School
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Polly Headshot
Vision for Leadership
Big, Bold, Wondrous Tomorrow
At Westover, we aspire to build a big, bold, wondrous tomorrow through fostering an educational environment where students can reach their full potential, equipped with the knowledge, skills, and motivation to create a more just, equitable, and sustainable world. As part of these efforts, Westover has launched new academic initiatives including;
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Westover Institute: Exploring Big Questions
An Expanding Vision for Westover’s Signature ProgramsThe Westover Institute is a new program that will serve as an incubator for the school’s signature programs, allowing students to apply their learning to explore big questions facing their generation. This program will provide a platform for teachers from inside and outside Westover to lead short courses on topics that range from entrepreneurship and finance to global issues, environmental sustainability, integrity and justice, resiliency, diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB), leadership, women in science, and more. Classes will meet on Saturday mornings for three hours and run for four weeks. The Westover Institute will run two course sessions each semester. -
Oxford Tutorial Model
Academic Excellence and the Power of SmallThis fall Westover will launch the Oxford Tutorial Model, a formal program to house the school’s legacy of one-on-one and small group student and teacher meetings that complement the core academic program. The program will draw from the teaching models established at University of Oxford and University of Cambridge which elevate intellectual engagement, independent thinking, and self-advocacy. -
Teaching and Learning Center for Academic Engagement
Fostering Critical Thinking, Collaboration, and CreativityThis fall Westover will open the new Teaching and Learning Center for Academic Engagement, bringing together the school's academic thought leaders into one space to elevate the art, science, and practice of teaching and learning at Westover. A lab that merges research with practice, students and teachers alike will be supported by innovative practices that foster critical thinking, collaboration, and academic excellence. A reimagining of a traditional learning center, the Teaching and Learning Center for Academic Engagement amplifies learning support and resources for multi-language learners while also serving as a dynamic hub for research, educational partners, and programming like Challenge Success, the Oxford Tutorial Model, and the Resiliency Project. -
Ann Pollina Center for Women in Science and Engineering (WISE)
New Partnerships & Forward-Focused CurriculumThe Women In Science and Engineering (WISE) Program was developed by Westover Head of School Joe Molder and math teacher and future Head of School Ann Pollina in the early 1990s with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Today WISE’s fully-fledged four-year STEM curriculum gives Westover students the ability to specialize in STEM, including a full-credit entry-level course taken by all freshmen and a series of advanced electives.
As a result of this remarkable program, generations of Westover alums have boldly stepped into research, leadership, and innovation in STEM fields. Over the next year, WISE will pursue reestablishing a key partnership with a leading college, university, or research institution to serve in an advisory role for the program. In addition, WISE will develop and launch a computer science curriculum focused on AI, preparing Westover students for a future that will be impacted by this growing technology.
Head of School Polly Fredlund
Girls’-centered education is powerful for so many reasons, and top among them is that you are the central character in your story. At Westover, you are the protagonist, the hero in this world that was built specifically for you. These buildings, the supporting characters of teachers and staff, and the limitless opportunities to think, to do, to be—place you at the center.
Head of School Book Club
Head of School Polly Fredlund hosts a book club each year featuring three books of interest. Community members are encouraged to read these books and gather with Polly online to discuss the books. Westover teachers past and present as well as authors, including Dr. Lisa Damout and Julia Alvarez, have joined Polly for her book talks.
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The Personal Librarian
by Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray
Dive into the remarkable story of Belle de Costa Greene, the most prominent librarian in American history, who was forced to hide her true identity while building a lasting legacy as JP Morgan’s personal librarian. (November 2024) -
James
by Percival Everett
A modern take on an American classic, James both leads us to critique the American experiment while elevating the bonds between Jim and Huck Finn. A book described as, “... a majestic new novel that flips the perspective on the events in Huckleberry Finn, giving us the story as a coolly electric first-person narrative in the voice of Jim, the novel’s enslaved runaway.” (March 2025) -
A Month in the Country
by J.L. Carr
Polly is joined by Westover’s former English teacher Bruce Coffin P’92at Reunion Weekend to discuss A Month in the Country, a poetic novel set in the remote Yorkshire village that details a WWI veteran’s journey to restore a recently discovered medieval mural while healing through the power of art. (June 2025) -
In The Time of The Butterflies
by Julia Alvarez
In the Time of the Butterflies captures the lives of the Mirabal sisters, known as the mariposas or butterflies, who were part of the Dominican resistance against General Rafael Trujillo. Alvarez’s book is a testament to these remarkable women, and she notes that they “have served as models for women fighting against injustices of all kinds.” Her prose along with her memory bring to life the remarkable stories of Patria, Minerva, María Teresa, and Adela. (November 2023) -
The Emotional Lives of Teenagers
by Lisa Damout
We all know that with teenagers, powerful emotions come with the territory. It’s easy for them—and their parents—to feel anxious and overwhelmed. Dr. Damour helps us to explore how to support today’s teens who are contending with academic pressure, social media stress, worries about the future, and concerns about their own mental health. (March 2024) -
The Women
by Kristin Hannah
The Women is an intimate portrait of Frankie McGrath, a woman coming of age during the Vietnam War who impulsively joins the Army Nurse Corps after her brother ships out to serve. It is an epic coming-of-age tale of a heroine who navigates a nation divided by war and broken by politics. (June 2024)
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Upfront with Polly
Get to know Polly and the ways in which she is leading Westover today by reading the latest issues of Upfront with Polly, Westover’s Head of School newsletter. From campus life to educational partnerships to what is on her playlist, you can get to know Polly up close each month by subscribing to her monthly newsletter at communications@westoverschool.org
Be Boldly You
Westover School admits students of any race, color, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, national and ethnic origin, or disability to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. As a gender-diverse girls school, Westover welcomes applicants and students who are assigned female at birth and/or identify as girls. The School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, national and ethnic origin, disability, or any other status protected by applicable law in the administration of its educational policies, admissions and financial aid policies, and athletic or other school-administered programs.