If universities’ faculty engage in ongoing study of their subjects, why shouldn’t ours? At Saint Mary’s Hall, we offer our teachers some of the best professional development opportunities available. Thanks to the Peggy Pittman Mays Fund for Teacher Excellence, these opportunities include travel grants that give our teachers the chance to engage in top learning experiences in their fields around the world.

The result? Dancers train with a teacher who studied over the summer at the School of the Paris Opera Ballet. Students in Global Studies ponder the complexities and conflicts of the Middle East with a teacher who conducted a self-study in Turkey, Israel, and Jordan. Art history students explore details their teacher discovered during an in-person encounter with a third of their course’s masterpieces in New York, Paris, and London.