ABSTRACT
The most striking statue at Mary Zakarian's alma mater, Philadelphia High School for Girls, is the Winged Victory of Samathrace—the second century B.C. depiction of the goddess Nike in forward motion, embodying grace, power, and triumph. The history of Girls' High is impressive. It opened in 1848 as Girls' Normal School, a school for training teachers, became Girls' High School of Philadelphia in 1859, and was renamed Philadelphia High School for Girls in 1893. The degree to which Mary's life was influenced by her experiences at Girls' High is a matter of speculation. Although she graduated cum laude and hardly ever missed a day of school in her four years there, Mary viewed her high school years with ambivalence, at least in retrospect. There was a bit of levity too in Mary's recollections from high school. By its very nature, an all-girls school should alleviate some of the pressures of adolescence.
