Discovering Strengths in Girls
Purnell's award-winning Affinities Program grows out of a belief that building on a student's strengths is the best way to help her grow into the person she was meant to become. At Purnell School, girls discover their strengths and use them to carve out a path toward a meaningful future. Some students come to Purnell with specific challenges to overcome and one of the important things we do is provide a framework for each girl to discover how she can address those challenges in healthy and productive ways. But addressing challenge by understanding how one learns is only half of a Purnell education. The other half includes helping each student discover her strengths.
The Affinities Program is really about self-discovery. Self-discovery is the key to helping our students find and create meaning in their lives. At Purnell, we begin by helping girls understand which activities make them feel strong and then we engage them in those activities over and over again. The Affinities Program is a four-year program with curriculum that is designed to develop girls' strengths and to help them understand relationships at each grade level. This program is implemented by a fulltime Affinities Coordinator, a role that has been evolving in the school since 2003.
