2020 GRANTEES

The Ellis School is Pittsburgh's leading age 3 to grade 12 independent school dedicated to the education of girls. The mission of The Ellis School is to educate girls and young women to become bold, authentic, and intellectually vibrant changemakers.

An Ellis education is a transformative experience, and all students who are bright and curious, principled in their beliefs, eager to make a difference, and ready to make the very most of their school experience should be Ellis girls. However, research has shown that a significant number of potential families do not pursue an Ellis education for their daughters because they believe it is out of their reach financially. To remedy that notion, in fall 2019, Ellis launched a new initiative, Tailored Tuition, to make Ellis more attractive and affordable to all Pittsburgh families. AE&E Fund is honored to support Ellis to help provide this affordability program which increases access to an unparalleled education for girls in the Pittsburgh region.

Tailored Tuition shifts away from the blanket approach that explains financial aid as a discount from full tuition, employing a more individualized approach that takes each family’s unique financial profile into account to ensure enrollment is a long-term investment. Just as in the previous financial aid model, a family’s best fit may be the Top Tuition for their daughter’s grade level or a rate of Tailored Tuition that is calculated based on the family’s financial profile. “We know from our research that a significant number of families do not pursue an independent school education because they believe it is out of reach financially. This new approach will ask each family to pay a rate of tuition that is a sustainable stretch for them while taking into account their other significant financial variables,” says Head of School, Macon Finley.

Despite impressive progress in so many ways, the world still has some distance to travel to be as remarkable as we would like it to be for girls and women. At The Ellis School, girls are free to be their authentic selves, flex their minds, and use their voices to impact the world around them. When Sara Frazer Ellis founded The Ellis School in 1916, her vision was to create an environment for girls and young women in which they would thrive and from which they would emerge poised and ready to tackle the most exciting opportunities then open to women in the world of higher education. For over 100 years, the School has evolved as the world has changed, but Ellis has maintained its fierce focus on being a place where girls grow and learn in all the best ways, preparing them to soar in the world into which they will graduate.

All photos courtesy of The Ellis School.