In Mobile’s educational history, few events were as significant or transformative as the merger between University Military School and Julius T. Wright College Preparatory School for Girls. For generations, the schools operated in parallel: UMS with its reputation as an all-boys school with a strict military structure, Wright for its all-girls environment marked by academic rigor and sisterhood. But behind the scenes, both institutions were facing financial strains, and combining resources seemed like the only viable path forward.
For the students, especially the young women in Wright’s final graduating class from 1988, the news was hard to take. They had grown up in a school defined by long-held rituals and a sense of sorority with their classmates. Having to combine with a boys’ military school stirred complicated emotions of grief, apprehension and curiosity.
Yet, something remarkable happened in the years that followed. What began as a merger born of necessity evolved into a partnership of possibility. Though the transition wasn’t without its growing pains, the two communities discovered compatibility. “As we came together, we began to see that what we had in common was much more important than any differences of opinion we had,” says former UMS-Wright Board Chair Dr. Robert McGinley. “There was some competition at the beginning between the boys and the girls. But over time, it’s worked very well.”…