Ms. Rachel Lintgen served the GA community in various roles over the course of her time as a faculty member. However, Ms. Litgen began her time at GA as a sophomore student. She later returned to GA in 2013 as an English teacher, and ultimately was promoted to several leadership positions including House Head and Dean of Students.
Nonetheless, Ms. Lintgen had always aspired to become a division head. This school year, she finally had the chance to do so, as she began the start of her Upper School Director career at Hathaway Brown (HB), an all-girls school in Ohio.
Ms. Lintgen describes her transition from GA to HB as exciting but also very challenging, as she misses a lot from the GA community, such as the meaningful connections she formed with GA faculty that were hard to leave behind.
“I was at GA for 10 years, so I have some really dear friends,” Ms. Lintgen said. “I miss those collegial relationships that I had built with people over a decade.”
Along with those close relationships, she misses the exuberant GA school spirit, especially surrounding GA/PC day.
“When it was GA/PC day weekend I saw pictures on the GA Instagram and people sent me pictures of the pep rally,” Ms. Lintgen said. “And I just thought that is such quintessential GA.”
Additionally, being a part of the English Department was a big part of Ms. Lintgen’s GA experience. Losing this classroom engagement with students at HB was challenging for her. However, she hopes to teach her own classes again soon.
“This is my first year in my whole career that I’m not teaching, and wow, I really miss it,” Ms. Lintgen said. “I’m really excited to get back into the classroom next year.”
Although Ms. Lintgen left behind much of her old life in Pennsylvania, her new one has brought with it so many new opportunities and fun traditions.
“Our homecoming theme was Barbie, which was really fun. I got a pink blazer and they even had a Barbie box that you could stand in,” Ms. Lintgen said. “We also did a mini pep rally with the fall sports. The faculty even played silly games with the athletes.”
“These things reminded me of some of the things I love most about GA, that joyfulness and silliness,” Ms. Lintgen said. “These are very high-performing kids, so it’s a highlight for me when I get to see them just have fun.”
HB is smaller than GA’s Upper School, with about 375 students and 56 faculty members. These smaller numbers allow Ms. Lintgen to connect and form relationships with both faculty and students, even with a head position.
“One of the things I liked most about being the Dean of Students at GA [was] helping students take an idea they had and make it come to life,“ Ms. Lintgen said. “And as a division director, you get to do the same thing, but on a bigger scale.”
At GA, one of Ms. Lintgen’s biggest accomplishments was her work with affinity groups. At HB, she wants to continue to develop diversity and connectivity within her school, which starts by observing and listening to the needs of the student and faculty body during her first year.
“I’m really determined to just live my first year and see the way things are done to try to learn, because it’s a great way to get to know the community,” Ms. Lintgen said. “There is a part in Ted Lasso where he says ‘be curious, not judgemental,’ and I’m trying to embody that by being really observant and not judgemental at all.”
As her first year comes to a close, she is looking forward to what her career will bring next year.
“Hathway Brown has so many wonderful, strong things going for it,” Ms. Lintgen said. “I’m really excited to keep building on it.”