Dr. Autumn Graves, head of Girls Preparatory School, talks with junior student Jen Andrews, left, and senior student Savannah Williams, right, after participating in environmental science class. Graves wore a GPS uniform as she spent the day shadowing Andrews.
Three women founded Girls Preparatory School in 1906 because the city school board refused to offer girls a fourth year of high school studies so girls could apply for college - as boys were able to.
The founding trio invested all their money -- $300 -- and opened GPS in one of their homes.
"I take great pride in the fact that we were started as a school that was trying to solve a social problem," said Autumn Adkins Graves, who took over on July 1 as head of the all-girls day school in North Chattanooga. "It was founded as a women's business. They opened a business and ran it for 50 years."
Fast-forward to today, when GPS grad Priya Boyington works for GoldieBlox, a San Francisco Bay-area startup that makes toys designed to bolster girls' interest in engineering. Target and Toys "R" Us are among the retailers to sell GoldieBlox.
"I think about these women as social entrepreneurs," Graves said.
Helping girls become social entrepreneurs is part of Graves' vision for GPS.
That goes hand in hand with Graves' goal to make Girls Preparatory School financially accessible to qualified girls who want to attend -- even if they can't afford to pay. One way she hopes to do that is to keep tuition down by increasing the school's $30 million endowment. It generates interest revenue that helps pay for the school's day-to-day operations.
"A part of making the school accessible is, 'How can I keep the tuition down?" Graves said. "With some of the relationships we're building with alumnae, friends of the school and community foundations, we may be able to build a case where they see a benefit of supporting our financial aid program."
In 2013-14, GPS awarded nearly $2.3 million in grants to more than 40 percent of GPS girls and their families, according to the school's website.
"Wow. That's significantly more than the national average," National Association of Independent Schools spokeswoman Myra McGovern said, when told of the percentage of GPS' students receiving aid.
On average, 23 percent of private and parochial students of schools that belong to NAIS receive aid, McGovern said.
"Most financial aid grants are partial grants," she said. "It may be a philosophical issue at the schools, that they want every family to pay something."
Nationwide, the median financial aid grant was $14,310, McGovern said. About 5.4 percent of financial aid recipients received full financial aid, she said. GPS officials declined to state the average grant awarded to students, but it's around $9,900, based on school enrollment and grant figures on the school's website.
Annual tuition at GPS is $21,990, including lunch. Expenses not covered by tuition include uniforms, books, laptop and iPad, the school's website said.
Nationally, the median day school tuition for sixth grade in 2013-14 was $20,430, McGovern said, and the median 12th-grade day school tuition was $24,485.
Growing the endowment
After her first baby's birth in late November, Graves plans to take time off from Thanksgiving to the New Year, then work part-time through January.
"I hit the road fund-raising in February," she said.
Fund-raising and managing the financial picture is a big part of the job for an independent school's head, McGovern said.
"Over the past couple of decades, the job has changed and become much more like the job of a CEO," she said.
Graves' educational background includes being president from 2009-2012 of Girard College, a Philadelphia boarding school founded in 1833 whose low-income, first- through 12th-grade students get full-ride scholarships funded mainly through the estate of shipping and banking magnate Stephen Girard, who's been ranked as the fourth-richest American ever.
She also previously served as upper school dean of students at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., which is the school attended by children of several U.S. presidents, including Obama, Clinton and Nixon.
Former GPS board chairwoman Nini Davenport was part of the committee that selected Graves.
"Dr. Graves was an obvious choice because of her rich varied experience in education," said Davenport. "But even more compelling is her passion for same-gender education and developing girls for leadership."
Eighth-grader Reagan Long sat on the floor near the GPS front entrance recently looking at her computer. She has a friend who wants to attend the school with her but can't afford the tuition.
Long said her friend is bored at her current school because it doesn't push her enough.
"People who don't have money deserve as much as people who do," she said. "We should all have equal opportunity."