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Distance. It can loom large. Finding ways to bring young women together in pursuit of shared knowledge and understanding throughout our global society is critical. Our partnership with a school thousands of miles from Wellesley is designed to do just that.
Beginning in the summer of 2010, Dana Hall School established an exchange program with Japan’s Tokyo Jogakkan Middle and High School (TJK). TJK is similar to Dana Hall in many ways. Dana Hall was started as a preparatory school for Wellesley College in 1881, and TJK was started in 1888 to provide a formal education to the wives of dignitaries. Both schools were revolutionary at the time of their founding as they focused on women’s education in the 1880s.
Our student exchange with TJK began in 2010, due to the partnership and diligent work of former Dana Hall teacher and current TJK faculty member, Ms. Crystal Brunelli. Since 2010 we’ve had many rich opportunities to meet, teach, and learn from the remarkable young women who came to our campus as boarding students representing TJK.
After a necessary break due to the pandemic, we now look forward to sending Dana Hall students to TJK this summer, as well as welcoming select TJK 10th graders to campus this summer as a part of their Boston Leadership and Study Tour. And, we will welcome two more students from TJK to be a part of our community for the 2023-24 academic year.
As I reflect on the number of students who have been impacted by these two institutions, all of us at Dana Hall take great pride in how each school has helped shape the future of our graduates and those who have been impacted by them.
I also note that the enduring partnership formed 13 years ago was the result of two schools—both sharing an important understanding of girls, their education, and the critical significance of international connection and understanding. We have shortened the distance among us in a small but significant way, and the young women in our respective spheres are the beneficiaries. Dana Hall School remains dedicated to offering the vigorous education every girl deserves—one that’s academically ambitious, rich with opportunity, and fiercely empowering.
Photos from 2019 (top) and 2017