Investiture for 16th Girard College president

Autumn Joy Adkins, an educator with experience in Quaker and other private schools, had struggled with writing a speech for today's investiture ceremony at Girard College recognizing her as 16th president of the boarding school in Fairmount for low-income students.

Her first two drafts focused on her historic role as the first African American and first woman to lead a school created by a bequest of the 19th-century merchant-banker Stephen Girard to educate poor white orphan boys.

Today, she acknowledged Girard's turbulent 161-year history, and dabbed at her eyes as she noted the demonstrations and legal challenges that led to Girard's desegregation in 1968 and admission of girls in 1984.

"I feel humbled and honored," she said.

But instead of dwelling on the past, Adkins delivered a rousing speech in the school's ornate stone chapel that outlined her vision of Girard's bright future and drew hundreds of applauding students, teachers, alumni, parents, and local leaders to their feet.

"We will become the premier institution for effective urban education," she said, noting that she has been concerned about the lack of educational opportunities for low-income students since she was 17.

She made a personal pledge to the 600 current Girard College students from first through 12th grade, promising "to work with passion, love, and an intensity" to provide them with a 21st-century education that will not only prepare them for college and careers, but teach them "how to be the civic leaders in this global society we desperately need."

And she said she would begin working on a strategic plan with robust fund-raising to carry out her vision and help sustain the school.

In a brief interview afterward, Adkins said she had decided that the ceremony was the right time "to go out there and say, 'This is what I'm going to do. And this is what our children need.' And it's nice being the president, because you can say it."

One of her friends called it "a call to arms."

Adkins said dealing with the school's finances would be one of her first major challenges.

Income from the Girard Estate funds the school, which provides free boarding and a college-prep education for academically qualified low-income students. But Adkins said the school's investment portfolio had taken "a significant hit" in the economic downturn.

Girard has made several cost-cutting moves, including limiting new admissions to first graders.

Adkins is a native of Monongahela, near Pittsburgh. She spent much of her childhood in Richmond, Va.

She holds degrees from the University of Virginia and Columbia University, and has extensive experience as a teacher and administrator at private schools.

Most recently, she spent six years as an assistant principal at Friends Seminary in New York City.

Adkins, whose selection was announced in March, has been at the helm of the school since July.

She succeeded Dominic M. Cermele, a 1949 Girard graduate, who retired in June after six years.

Though Adkins did not dwell on her history-making role, the audience was filled with those who had come to witness it, including Charles W. Hicks, Class of 1974, the school's first African American graduate.

"I could not miss this occasion," said Hicks, who drove from Detroit.

Mel Dorn and Karen Asper Jordan were there as well.

Both were teenagers when they joined the "freedom marchers" who demonstrated outside Girard's stone walls for seven months in 1965, seeking admission of black students.

The around-the-clock civil-rights demonstrations were led by Cecil B. Moore.

"This day," Dorn said, "made me realize it was all worth it."