When you enter Maggie Walker Governor’s School, what is the first thing you see? For students who take the bus, perhaps it is the vibrant mural, unveiled in 2019, that catches the attention outside Bluestone Lobby. Or, after you climb up the rather imposing set of stairs at the front of the school and walk inside, you can glimpse the display cases flanking the doors to the auditorium, containing memorabilia and tributes to Maggie Lena Walker herself. While walking through the halls, vivid paintings and intricate sketches from students in the Art Department pop into your sight. As you rush up one of our almost-hidden staircases, you can see a framed article about the school’s national ranking from the 2010s. 

In short, dispersed throughout the building lie an endless number of testaments to the history and culture of Maggie Walker. Since its establishment in 1991, the school has gained a reputation of fostering high achievement and excellence in its students. This reputation has been supported on a national level, most recently seen in Niche.com’s 2023 ranking MLWGS as the #8 Best Public High School in America. However, as a Governor’s School, Maggie Walker has also been perceived as a stressful environment for students, and it has faced some backlash, especially when examining school demographics and statistics.

Over the last few years, Maggie Walker has welcomed a spate of structural changes to both the admissions process and classes themselves. Most visible of these changes are the implementation of Dragon Advisory and MLWGS 101 in place of FIRC for incoming freshmen, which began this year with the Class of ‘28. To find out more about why these changes were executed, I sat down with Dr. Smith to discuss both the past, present, and future of Maggie Walker and the impetus of such transformations.

The necessity to introduce such changes originated with a Virginia Department of Education visit to the school in 2019. This visit reported that Maggie Walker’s teaching methods were traditional, and its quality of teaching could be found in regular classrooms outside of the Governor’s School. Dr. Smith described the DOE visit as a “wake up call, because we couldn’t keep on doing things the way we’d always been doing and expect to stay competitive in the arena of specialty centers.” Moreover, the school realized that it needed to find ways to adapt to the “double pandemics” of 2020: both the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the Black Lives Matter Movement that shook the world and made educational centers everywhere rethink representation, inclusivity, and diversity. 

At a deeper level, the main issue with the school was its lack of change. Some of the same structures that had been established in the early aughts had not been altered twenty years later. “For the first ten years that I was here…I saw very little change in the school. We used very traditional methods,” added Dr. Smith. This issue was emphasized by the fact that at the same time, the rest of the world had continued progressing at an almost unprecedented rate, with new academic and social movements gaining power in communities on a global scale as well as ways to contravene the academic integrity of the school developing through use of artificial intelligence. In the last five years, the school administration and faculty understood that it was past time to change and the perfect time to take action. They began drafting modifications and structural transformations that could restore Maggie Walker into a community that focused on the empowerment and growth of students in a variety of ways, even (and in some cases, especially) if they were unorthodox.

These changes have turned out to be absolutely revolutionary for the school in increasing retention rates and forming a more inclusive and accepting environment, especially given the rigidity of the school culture and environment over the past two decades. A key instance of the magnitude of transformation of the school can be found in Dragon Advisory and MLWGS 101. “FIRC had been around for 25 to 30 years, and it hadn’t changed very much in that entire time. We realized there were some real shortcomings with that program,” stated Dr. Smith, calling the class “problematic” for how late some freshmen received key information regarding technology use. Based on models at UVA and William and Mary, Dragon Advisory and MLWGS 101 now ensure that all students can start off their academic journey as strongly as possible, as they are equipped with information they need to be successful in the school. Dr. Smith also complimented the new additions to faculty and staff, calling them “a breath of fresh air” as teachers are willing to try new methods and innovative forms of education in order to truly progress the standards and quality of education at Maggie Walker.

Furthermore, diversity and inclusion became even more of a priority at Maggie Walker after the claims that arose in 2021 over the lack thereof, with an emphasis on the lack of admissions of Black and Latinx students. This issue stuck with the school, especially given that Maggie Walker High School, the predecessor to the Governor’s School, was a historically Black school during the age of segregation in Richmond. Underrepresentation and marginalization of students of color were problems that had to be addressed if Maggie Walker was going to continue being on the forefront of educational progress in the country. This newfound focus on diversity resulted in Ms. Harger joining Maggie Walker as Coordinator of Strategic Engagement as well as Ms. Ortiz joining the school as a social worker. Both of these additions and their subsequent actions, including Ms. Harger’s establishment of a diversity subcommittee that solely works towards fostering inclusion, have been vital in creating a system of support for all students. Additionally, Dr. Smith, Dr. Williams, and other faculty members including Ms. Harger, Ms. DeGroat, and Ms. Hill have been focusing on cultural competency and mental health awareness in the school over the last few years. Proof of the effects of these change, but especially Dragon Advisory, can be seen in the change in retention rate in the school: “In the freshman class, we’ve had far less students elect to go back to their home school than we’ve ever had before…to my knowledge, we’re looking at one or two [students],” stated Dr. Smith. 

All in all, it is overwhelmingly clear that 2024 has been a complete turning point for Maggie Walker. While the school environment is not perfect yet–Dr. Smith described the process as “building the airplane on the runway”--it is taking large steps in the right direction of progress. “I think we’re in a period of transition at the moment…I have never seen the culture go through so much change at one time,” Dr. Smith added, also calling 2024 his “best year” out of 17 years of serving the school thus far. He described large amounts of excitement and hope from himself and the faculty about where the school is headed. 

Through all of these changes, it is crucial to remember that students, not just administration and faculty, serve a paramount role in creating a new and improved school culture that truly lives up to the four pillars of the school, the legacy of Maggie L. Walker, and what the school represents. Each day, students are given the opportunity, the choice, and the responsibility to make compassionate and courageous decisions. We can choose to include others in our conversations, collaborate, and explore different perspectives rather than seeing through a singular lens. We can choose to respect the privileges given to us rather than taking them away from others. Most importantly, we can take pride in and show gratitude for the incredible community we have created, a community that works to increase the potential and support each individual. 

In 1901, none other than Maggie L. Walker stated, “Time and conditions change so rapidly that unless we keep on the alert, ever working, watching, improving and learning, we will be left behind in the race of progress.” As seen by the last few years at our school, the race of progress is something that we will be victorious in. 

Information retrieved Niche.com, VPM News, National Park Services