The Spence School, Private K-12 All-Girls' School in Manhattan

Adventurous
Learning for Life

At Spence, the K-12 academic journey is a spirited adventure grounded in inquiry—learning to live in questions—and a desire to delve deeper and pursue challenge and complexity.

“We ask, we wonder, we hypothesize, we imagine, we process information, we fail and try again and we ask further. I’ve also started to ask why not as I push my own learning by taking measured risks in seeking new knowledge.”
—Sarah

Pursuing SCHOLARSHIP WITH JOY and ENGAGING the world with PURPOSE

Lower School | K-4
Begin your journey with joyful inquiry
Middle School | 5-8
Explore who you are and your place in the world
Upper School | 9-12
Chart your own intellectual adventure and shape your future

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SO MANY WAYS to be You
Developing a strong voice that echoes who you are and what matters to you.
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SO MANY WAYS to be Us
Immigration Reenactment: Grade 4 students became someone from long ago and far away to study the experience of arriving in the US at the beginning of the 20th Century. During the yearlong Immigration Study that incorporates social studies, dance, and STEM, students play different roles at school, too—dancers, tech experts, researchers, and more.
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SO MANY WAYS to be You
Noora weaves gracefully through courses that include accelerated math, expands her programming skills in Robotics, sings in both Glee Club and Select Choir, and breaks athletic records in Track and Field. Most recently, she added acting to her repertoire, appearing in the Fall Play, Romeo and Juliet.
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SO MANY WAYS to be Explorers
Our students are driven by a great desire to look at the world with curiosity and see themselves as learners in many landscapes. When they leave the building to explore New York City as a part of their projects, they have their own ideas and they’re looking for information that’s important to them.
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SO MANY WAYS to be You
Marissa is a spirited leader in the classroom and as a member of multiple Middle School Clubs. She teaches philosophical theories in Ethics Club, helps manage the Sustainability Club’s Fun Walk, sings in Middle School Choir, plays Middle School Sports, and still finds time to express herself through dance both at Spence and outside of school.
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SO MANY WAYS to be You
Whether she’s presenting her rigorous research on trash in the ocean to marine biologists at a virtual U.N. event or scoring the deciding goal that earns the Saber team its soccer championship, Sarah is a captivating leader. Sarah is the founding editor of Spence’s award-winning magazine, The Nucleus.
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SO MANY WAYS to be Us
Grade 3 Pop-Up Self Portraits: Art projects, including 3-D self-portraits, are wonderful expressions of our students’ creativity, problem solving, and reflections on their interests and identity.
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SO MANY WAYS to be You
Samara is a U.S. Presidential Scholar, one of only 161 high school seniors in the country, and the only female recipient from an independent school in New York state. Samara will continue to pursue her passion for engineering and economics at Harvard University.
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SO MANY WAYS to be You
We Would Like to Create Our Own Musical: The full-length spring musical production is an idea initiated and entirely run by students in the Middle School Musical Theatre Club. There are more than 60 students involved as directors, cast, stage managers, choreographers, and musicians. Abigail, Olivia, and Remington have produced Into the Woods Jr. this year.

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GREAT Teaching
Spence students know that their voices matter and they are seen, heard, and respected.

“We cultivate environments for exploration, giving students autonomy to learn and explore themselves, achieve at the highest levels, and really believe that anything is possible.”
—JUSTIN IWERKS, HEAD OF COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT
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GREAT Teaching
“Our classrooms are passionate, voices overlap, and there is a little edge-of-your-seat excitement. You are not going to settle in and turn off your brain, you're going to lean in and listen to the conversation.”
—SARA BEASLEY, HEAD OF THE ENGLISH AND WORLD LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
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GREAT Teaching
“Our students graduate knowing how to ask the right questions, knowing how to challenge ideas, thoughts, and thinking. They will understand the connectedness of all of the sciences. They will know how to collaborate, respectfully. They will know how to share knowledge and information. They will be high-level, critical thinkers who are unafraid of numbers and data, and they'll want to go into a science field.”
—DALIA AIDOO, HEAD OF THE SCIENCE DEPARTMENT
#4

GREAT Teaching
“We love teaching, we love our discipline, and in the ways that we see and connect to students throughout the day, we are also teaching for the life of the student.”
—TRACI ALLEN, PE TEACHER

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Learning in the company of highly motivated students and passionate teachers

“What I love about Spence is that no two people are the same and no one person is one thing. We don't exist to be better than the next person; we exist to make each other better.”
—KASEY
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“Everyone at Spence not only really cares about your success but really what you have to say, and making it a positive environment where we all build each other up.”
—MEGAN
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“I’m surrounded by so many amazing women. So many people at Spence are so exceptional, and it’s very inspiring to get to take classes with people who are so motivated, which drives me to want to be more motivated and find my own passion.”
—AMALIE
#4

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"Science has always been a passion of mine—and so has female empowerment. At the end of sophomore year I co-founded GETS to both empower younger Spence girls to pursue STEM through the confidence of older Spence girls, and to create a supportive and encouraging environment for them to explore topics of interest."
—LILA
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I send my daughter to Spence because of this caring, inquisitive community and the profound effect an all-girls education can have on one's confidence and the support network it creates as one grows up.
—AMANDA KEATS '03, PARENT AND FORMER MATH TEACHER

A Visionary Educator Ahead of Her Time

Clara Spence was a revolutionary educator whose forward-thinking ideals of education for women continue to inspire The Spence School’s unparalleled education.
Learn More About Our History

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A Next-Generation Leader and Scholar

Felicia Wilks, our 15th Head of School, brings an evermore dynamic and vibrant framework for excellence in teaching and learning at Spence today.
Meet Felicia Wilks

Clara Spence

“A place not of mechanical instruction but a school of character where the common requisite for all have been human feeling, a sense of humor and the spirit of intellectual and moral adventure.”

772 Students

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272

Lower School
233

Middle School
267

Upper School

Spence Campus

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56 East 93rd Street

Lower School
22 East 91st Street

Middle & Upper School
412 East 90th Street

Athletic & Educational Facility

Not for SCHOOL but for LIFE we learn.
Non scholae sed vitae discimus

We salute the extraordinary Spence alumnae who continue to inspire

our motto and mission and make a difference in the world

Alison Parish ’19

Pre-Med Student

Alison Parish ’19 envisioned a future in medicine during her time at Spence. In Grade 7, she participated in the MedStart Enrichment program offered through Mount Sinai hospitals. Directly after graduating from Spence, Alison headed to Senegal for a year of service learning as part of Princeton’s Novogratz Bridge Year Program. Upon her return from Senegal, Alison focused her studies on Medical Anthropology.
Amy C. Edmondson ’77

Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, Harvard Business School

A scholar of leadership, teaming, and organizational learning, Amy C. Edmondson ’77 has written seven books and more than 75 articles and case studies. As Harvard Business School’s Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, she drives the study of human interactions that lead to the creation of successful enterprises that contribute to the betterment of society.
Bear Douglas ’05

Director of Developer Relations, Slack

Bear Douglas ’05 is proof that Spence girls are in no way shy of technology, having risen into leadership roles in some of tech’s biggest names in her decade-and-a-half after Spence. After receiving her M.A. in Anthropology from Stanford University, Bear became a Developer Advocate, first at Facebook, and then at Twitter. She’s currently working as Director of Developer relations at Slack, a productivity platform with over 20 million active users.
Jean Cottam Allen ’89

Deputy Division Director, National Science Foundation

Jean Cottam Allen ’89 charted a path to the stars after her time at Spence. She received her Ph.D. in Physics and Astrophysics from Columbia and—after initially thinking she’d pursue teaching—rose to prominence as an Astrophysicist at NASA. She is now Deputy Division Director of the National Science Foundation, supporting research that combines electromagnetic waves, high-energy particles, and gravitational waves to “study matter, energy, and the cosmos in fundamentally new ways.”
Maxine Burkett ’94

Environmental Lawyer, Professor and Activist

Maxine Burkett ’94 is an environmental lawyer, climate activist and advocate, and professor of climate law and ocean and coastal law. Maxine has served on numerous state and federal committees, was Expert Senior Advisor to Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, and was recently appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oceans, Fisheries and Polar Affairs, where she oversees the formulation and implementation of U.S. policy on a broad range of international issues.
Naima Coster ’04

Author

New York Times bestselling author Naima Coster ’04 has taught writing for over a decade and has written for numerous publications (including the New York Times, Elle, and Time). Her most recent novel, What’s Mine and Yours (2021), was named best book of the year by Kirkus, Amazon, Esquire, Marie Claire, Ms. Magazine, and more. She holds an M.A. in English and Creative Writing from Fordham and an M.F.A. in Fiction from Columbia.
Zoë K. Hitzig ’11

Economist, Poet, Harvard Society of Fellows

Zoë K. Hitzig ’11 loves poetry and economics—so she’s doing both, each one fueled by the other. Her poetry helps her look at economic issues from a more artistic angle, and her poetry is fueled by a precision, inspired by the math that underlies her economic work. Her book of poems, Mezzanine, was published by HarperCollins in 2020. She’s currently an Economics Ph.D. candidate at Harvard University.

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Athletic & Educational Facility

412 East 90th Street
New York, NY 10128

A K-12 independent school in New York city, The Spence School prepares a diverse community of girls and young women for the demands of academic excellence and responsible citizenship.

212-289-5940

© 2023 Spence School

Explore SPENCE

Academic Experience

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SO MANY WAYS to be You

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SO MANY WAYS to be Us

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SO MANY WAYS to be You

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SO MANY WAYS to be Explorers

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SO MANY WAYS to be You

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SO MANY WAYS to be You

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SO MANY WAYS to be You

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GREAT Teaching

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GREAT Teaching

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A Visionary Educator Ahead of Her Time

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A Next-Generation Leader and Scholar

Clara Spence

Banner

136

257

772 Students

List of 3 items.

272

233

267

Founded in

Spence Campus

List of 3 items.

56 East 93rd Street

22 East 91st Street

412 East 90th Street

Alison Parish ’19

Amy C. Edmondson ’77

Bear Douglas ’05

Jean Cottam Allen ’89

Maxine Burkett ’94

Naima Coster ’04

Zoë K. Hitzig ’11

The Latest

News and Stories

News Stories

List of 4 news stories.

Upper School Opening Assembly: Living Our Mission

Visual Arts Teacher Josh Dorman Receives Prestigious Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant

Rwandan Drumming Group Ingoma Nshya Visits Spence

Jeremy Joven Receives Honorable Mention for 2023 Computer Science Teacher Association Award

Middle & Upper School

Lower School

Athletic & Educational Facility