Emma Willard and her effect on educational opportunities.

Emma Willard was the first American woman publicly to support higher education for women. Her efforts advanced that movement in the United States. She also wrote a volume of poems that included Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep (1830). Willard was born in Berlin, Conn., and started teaching school there at the age of 16. In 1809, she married John Willard. In 1814 Emma Hart Willard opened a boarding school for girls in her Middlebury home. Her purpose …

…and left the school's leadership to her son. "Advancing the educational opportunities for women in a young nation whose founding principles encouraged its citizens to follow their convictions and pursue their ideals." Come let us sing together, A song of grateful praise; In honor of our founder The joyous strains upraise. 'Twas she beheld the vision And wrought with steadfast will; 'Tis we with joyous labor That vision must fulfill! (Emma Willard School Alma Mater)