Dr. Terrie Hale Scheckelhoff loved walking through the living room of St. Catherine’s School founder Virginia Randolph Ellett’s former home and seeing it filled with 3-year-old girls. “Children are at their highest level of learning in their youngest years,” says Scheckelhoff, who was instrumental in creating the Center for Early Childhood Education in Ellett’s home. “They are problem-solving and doing research even at 3, 4 and 5, so I knew it was an opportunity to enrich our school.”
Scheckelhoff’s walks through classrooms stopped in mid-March, but in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the school launched a distance-learning program for the entire student body that has enabled teaching to continue while the campus is closed.
Under the leadership of Schekelhoff, who came to the school in 2012, St. Catherine’s School set records in student enrollment, student retention and enrollment by students of color. She also expanded or created new programs such as a schoolwide health and wellness program, the Brilliant Summer Program and the Girls Innovate Program.
The annual Girls Innovate Program grew out of the school’s 125th anniversary in 2015. “We were challenging ourselves to define what continuous improvement looks like, and we wanted something to embrace,” Scheckelhoff says. Last October, nearly 1,000 girls in grades 4-12 from St. Catherine’s and across Richmond joined together for Girls Innovate, celebrating the International Day of the Girl.
As Scheckelhoff leaves St. Catherine’s School, her wish is that the school continues to put people first, then programs and the possibilities they bring. “We always need to understand that our greatest asset is our people, and that we need to continue to have a place for joy in learning.”
