Some of Culver Academies’ first female students will be returning to the Culver campus next month for a reunion event. Girls have formally been allowed to enroll there since the founding of Culver Girls Academy in 1971. But for 14 years before that, the school allowed the daughters of faculty and staff members to attend classes.
For that small group of students, who were often outnumbered 100 to one by the academy’s male cadets, it was an unusual high school experience. “You can imagine being a young 15-year-old starting out, and it was pretty terrifying, I guess I would say, originally, but as time wore on, it got to be very normal,” says Jean Maull Schuster, a 1965 graduate.
Outside of the classroom, though, it was also a bit difficult, according to 1963 graduate Johanna Hughes Trickovic, “Of course, we didn’t have the kind of social life you would have in a normal high school. We weren’t allowed on campus after hours. We weren’t allowed to go into the Shack, which was a little place where you could pick up a hamburger or something. We were pretty restricted.”
There were also limits on the activities in which girls could get involved, although Schuster points out that wasn’t that unusual in those days. From the first year girls were allowed on campus, however, they were able to take part in theater productions, and the opportunities gradually increased over time.
Trickovic adds that the academy’s male students weren’t all that pleased at first with the idea of having girls on campus. “At the beginning, the first two girls who graduated in ’59 had a really hard time,” she says. “The cadets didn’t particularly want them there or the other girls who were there – there were eight of them. The cadets didn’t want them there. Some of them were not particularly nice. Some of the faculty didn’t want us there, and even the alumni were not happy that the academy was considering going coed at a certain time.”
However, both Trickovic and Schuster say that by the time they were students, things had gotten better, and the cadets generally got along well with the girls on campus. Schuster points out, though, that they may have had some incentive, “We were faculty daughters, right? And my dad was the one they went to see when they got in trouble, so I was treated very well. And I think all of them knew that they might have a dad there lurking in the background, so we were not treated badly.”
For many of these students, the academic opportunities that existed at Culver Academy outweighed the challenges. Trickovic adds that the faculty daughters were in the same classrooms as some of the smartest students, and they often compared quite favorably. “I think we became stronger,” she says. “We supported each other, and we competed against men at a very young age, and I think that benefited us throughout our whole lives.”
Next month, about 30 of the 57 faculty and staff daughters who attended Culver Academy between 1957 and 1971 will be returning to campus for their own special reunion. Trickovic says the event is the first of its kind, “It’s been 50, 55 years since some of us have seen each other. And a few years ago, a couple of us were talking and said, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun if we could just have our own reunion?’ and it’s taken about three years to get it going and we’ll be there at the normal reunion time when the cadets and the girls school have their reunions, too. So we’re all excited about being a part of that, and it’s just been a wonderful experience to reconnect with these girls who were so important in our lives at that time.”
Culver Academies’ Alumni Reunion Weekend will take place May 12 through May 15.
