Coeducation at SYA
Nixon was president. People flocked to see Love Story. IBM introduced the floppy disk. That Girl was the number one TV show and “Layla” was ubiquitous on the radio. The median household income was $8,734. The Baltimore Orioles won the World Series. It was 1970, and Schoolboys Abroad changed its name to School Year Abroad during the historic moment when 13 female students enrolled at SYA Spain. This unprecedented move toward coeducation signaled a sweeping evolution at SYA. This moment opened doors to a lifetime of possibility and change for women, one that continues to evolve and show promise. SYA admitted women to our campuses in France and Germany the following year. The rest is HERstory.
Meet Six of the Original 13
![Michele French ES'71]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1727210283/sya/mwlrks0zjj5qvihptnte/MicheleFrench.png","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_2/v1727210283/sya/mwlrks0zjj5qvihptnte/MicheleFrench.png","width":512},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1727210283/sya/mwlrks0zjj5qvihptnte/MicheleFrench.png","width":788}])
Reprint from 2012 SYA Magazine
By the time Michele French began SYA Spain, in 1970, she had already lived in Mexico and Europe, but, she says, participation in the program offered her an opportunity for a multicultural educational experience that was previously unknown to her. “In a way, I enjoyed a new level of independence,” she recalls.
![Ruth Ann Gillis ES'71 IT'04P]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1727210404/sya/vrplkwpl9gkx3a0tp2a4/ruthanngillis.png","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_2/v1727210404/sya/vrplkwpl9gkx3a0tp2a4/ruthanngillis.png","width":512},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1727210404/sya/vrplkwpl9gkx3a0tp2a4/ruthanngillis.png","width":788}])
Reprint from 2012 SYA Magazine
As a junior high school student, Ruth Ann Gillis was excelling in Spanish, so when her parents came across a New York Times article reporting that School Boys Abroad would begin admitting female students in 1970, it seemed like an ideal opportunity for their daughter. “I thought it was a great idea, too,” recalls Gillis.
![Ellen Hoitsma ES'71]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1727210453/sya/chgpfzddcpndog6awdtf/ellenhoitsma.png","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_2/v1727210453/sya/chgpfzddcpndog6awdtf/ellenhoitsma.png","width":512},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1727210453/sya/chgpfzddcpndog6awdtf/ellenhoitsma.png","width":788}])
Reprint from 2012 SYA Magazine
The daughter of a Phillips Academy mathematics teacher, Ellen Hoitsma remembers the day when her father said her entire family would be living in Barcelona by the time she entered 10th grade. “And if my Spanish became strong enough,” she recalls, “he told me I could attend SYA as one of the first female students.”
![Susan McCouch ES'71]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1727210533/sya/lrfo0kufolirwqbkkfdt/susanmccouch.png","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_2/v1727210533/sya/lrfo0kufolirwqbkkfdt/susanmccouch.png","width":512},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1727210533/sya/lrfo0kufolirwqbkkfdt/susanmccouch.png","width":788}])
Reprint from 2012 SYA Magazine
When Susan McCouch first learned that girls could be part of School Boys Abroad (which would soon become School Year Abroad), “it seemed to be an opportunity and a challenge that very much appealed to me,” she says.
![Emily Nicklin ES'71]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1727210585/sya/bgein7uerddkcjuxqftr/emilynicklin.png","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_2/v1727210585/sya/bgein7uerddkcjuxqftr/emilynicklin.png","width":512},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1727210585/sya/bgein7uerddkcjuxqftr/emilynicklin.png","width":788}])
Reprint from 2012 SYA Magazine
It was a flyer posted in the hallways of her Quaker high school that Emily Nicklin often passed without notice — until now. “There was something different about it,” she recalls. “Looking more closely, I saw that School Boys Abroad had become School Year Abroad. I thought, ‘how wonderful: I don’t have to wait until college to study overseas.’”
![Diane Runyon Bech ES'71]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1727210318/sya/rfol5qwuodium9zuqemr/dianebech.png","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_2/v1727210318/sya/rfol5qwuodium9zuqemr/dianebech.png","width":512},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1727210318/sya/rfol5qwuodium9zuqemr/dianebech.png","width":788}])
Reprint from 2012 SYA Magazine
It was the wonderful tales of their Spanish adventures shared by her brothers, Desmond ES’67 and Raymond ES’67, that first piqued Diane Runyan Bech’s interest in School Year Abroad.
“I gained some familiarity with Barcelona, where they attended the School Boys Abroad program,” she recalls. “But as a girl, I realized that I couldn’t participate.”
Celebrating our Coeducation Trailblazers: A Round Table Discussion with Some of the First Women of SYA
(Replay from 2020)
Meet some of the first women of SYA. Go back with them to Spain and France in the early 70s and hear about their experiences as Schoolboys Abroad admitted its first female students. Moderated by Allison Temple Bacon ES'81, Trustee