Be Remarkable: Meet Grace McPhail
“We were really excited about the opportunities that I could have to explore my interests,” senior day-student Grace McPhail said about her and her parents’ decision for her to join the Salem community four years ago. “It’s been a great place for me to feel like myself and make connections with people from so many different backgrounds and places.”
Grace has fully embraced all the opportunities available to her at Salem Academy—especially those that allow her to flex her leadership muscles. As president of the junior class, Grace enjoys advocating for her classmates and the Salem community as a whole. “I make a difference on the student council by listening to the concerns of my peers and communicating them in a respectful and productive way to the administration. I help bridge the communication gap, so we’re all on the same page,” Grace said. She also serves as team captain of the fencing team and said, “I love being able to support my teammates and help get new students into fencing. It’s really fun for me to be able to lift my teammates up and help them grow their skills.”
During her freshman year, Grace worked with the Academy’s accommodations coordinator to build strong time management and study skills. “Those skills I learned have really helped me to manage my time effectively and stay on top of deadlines, which I’ve realized is really unique compared to some of my friends from outside Salem. I’m able to work through a much higher volume of work and do a different level of coursework than a lot of them.” The strong community at Salem has also been crucial for Grace’s academic success over the past four years. Although she’s a day student, Grace often heads back to Babcock Hall after fencing practice to study with her classmates. “I’ve made a study group with some friends from my chemistry class and from my linear algebra class, which has really helped me work through some very difficult classwork.”
As Grace prepares to graduate in May 2026, she is applying to universities on the East Coast with strong environmental engineering programs. She completed two internships during her junior year, with Old Salem’s horticulture team and a local waterkeeper organization dedicated to protecting the Yadkin River. Grace said these experiences inspired her to pursue a career in “sustainability work and designing technologies to help with pollution and climate change.”
“A good word to sum up my experience at Salem Academy is launchpad, because the experiences I’ve had in the classroom here have really encouraged me to connect with my teachers, connect with my peers, and seek out opportunities I wouldn’t have necessarily sought out before. I’m most proud of how much I’ve grown into myself.”
Reflecting on her time at Salem Academy, Grace said, “Salem Academy has prepared me to go to college with a lot of college credit, and a good sense of what I want to study and how I can contribute to science and engineering.” One thing’s for sure–Grace’s future looks remarkable!