By Kristina Kyles Smith, Ed.D., Lillie May Carroll Jackson Charter School for Girls (Baltimore, USA), with reflections from Consolata Norbert and Schola Shimechero of The Mango Tree School (Kenya)

Our girls in East Baltimore sat down at nine in the morning. The girls at The Mango Tree School in Kenya sat down at five in the afternoon—eight time zones away, notebooks open, in uniform, ready.

Then, through a laptop screen, they found each other.

Together, they explored leadership, values, and community through a shared Lean In Girls session designed around one simple idea: leadership begins with understanding what matters most to you.

That moment is the one worth holding onto.

Not because it was perfect. It wasn't.

But because it showed what becomes possible when girls are given the opportunity to connect across distance, culture, and circumstance—and discover how much they already share.

How It Started

An ICGS Conference, a Conversation, and a Question That Wouldn't Let Go

The connection between Lillie May Carroll Jackson Charter School and The Mango Tree School began at an International Coalition of Girls' Schools (ICGS) conference.

What started as a conversation between school leaders became a question: What would it look like for our girls to meet—not through letters or presentations, but in real-time conversation?

We decided to find out, and we haven't stopped asking questions since.

Using the Lean In Girls Values Curriculum as a shared framework, students explored the values that guide their decisions and reflected on how those values show up in their daily lives. Rather than focusing on cultural differences, the session centered on common questions: Who am I becoming? What do I owe my community? What does leadership look like in practice?

Why We Did This

Global Sisterhood Is Not an Extracurricular

Both of our schools believe leadership begins with values and community. We ask girls to think beyond academic achievement and wrestle with deeper questions about responsibility, courage, integrity, and service.

What became clear as we planned was how much our approaches aligned. Both schools see girls as leaders now—not leaders-in-training. Both believe leadership is rooted in relationships and responsibility to others.

That made the collaboration about more than connection. It became a shared learning experience where girls could examine how the same values travel across different contexts and cultures.

What Actually Happened

The Connection Was Real

What stood out immediately was how quickly the girls connected.

Students from both schools spoke about responsibility, courage, friendship, and service. They described caring for younger siblings, supporting classmates, standing up for others, and balancing personal goals with commitments to their communities. Although their daily experiences differed, the values underneath those experiences felt remarkably familiar.

For students at The Mango Tree School, three values resonated especially strongly: Integrity, Acceptance, and Collaboration.

Integrity meant taking responsibility without waiting to be reminded. Acceptance meant respecting people from different backgrounds and listening with empathy. Collaboration reflected the belief that communities become stronger when people work together to solve challenges and support one another.

One of the most powerful realizations for many students was discovering how similar their hopes, dreams, and leadership challenges were despite living in different countries. Again and again, girls reflected that the challenges they discussed were often the same—even when the solutions looked different.

The conversations helped students recognize that young women around the world are asking many of the same questions about confidence, responsibility, belonging, and service.

Don't Let Perfection Be the Enemy of Progress

Of course, not everything went according to plan.

The technology pushed back on us. There were connectivity issues, audio delays, and moments when we wondered whether the session would hold together. Yet what surprised us most was how the girls responded.

They didn't lose focus.

They waited patiently, leaned in when the connection returned, and continued the conversation as if nothing had happened. The work mattered to them, and they weren't willing to let a glitchy internet connection take it away.
In many ways, that resilience became its own leadership lesson.

Another powerful element was the community of organizations surrounding the experience. Representatives from Lean In Girls, the Junior League of Baltimore, and ICGS joined school leaders in supporting the session. For the students, seeing women and organizations invest in their growth sent an important message: their voices matter, and their leadership matters.

For The Mango Tree students, one particularly meaningful aspect was being chosen as a partner school for the collaboration. The opportunity to share their perspectives on a global platform left many feeling honored, encouraged, and more confident in using their voices.

What We Learned

For School Leaders Considering Global Partnerships

The impact continued after the Zoom call ended. Students from both schools kept talking about the experience—reflecting on what they had learned, what surprised them, and how they saw themselves differently afterward.

For school leaders considering similar partnerships, here are our biggest takeaways:

• Use ICGS gatherings with intention. This partnership began through a connection made at an ICGS conference. Come to convenings with curiosity and a willingness to explore new collaborations.
• Find your shared curriculum first. The Lean In Girls Values Curriculum gave both schools a common language and structure. It ensured the session was grounded in meaningful leadership learning rather than simply a cultural exchange.
• Plan for failure—then let go. Test the technology, have a backup plan, and expect challenges. What matters most is creating a strong learning experience that can withstand a few glitches.
• Design for context, not comparison. We asked girls to explore how shared values show up in different communities. The goal was not to prove how similar they were, but to learn from one another's experiences.

Be clear about what you're building. Global sisterhood is not just a nice idea—it is a leadership and learning opportunity. When our girls understood the purpose, they engaged more deeply.

What we witnessed was not a cultural exchange for its own sake. It was a learning experience rooted in leadership, values, and belonging. Our students discovered that while their contexts may differ, they are connected by many of the same aspirations, responsibilities, and hopes for the future.

Looking Ahead

This Is Only the Beginning

Global sisterhood is not an abstract idea.

For one afternoon, girls in Baltimore and girls in Kenya learned with one another, challenged one another, and saw themselves reflected in one another. They discovered that leadership values like integrity, courage, acceptance, and collaboration can look different in practice while remaining deeply shared at their core.

That is the promise of global learning.

It may be messy. It may be imperfect.

But it is absolutely worth it.

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Kristina Kyles Smith, Ed.D. is CEO of Girls Charter, Inc., which operates Lillie May Carroll Jackson Charter School — a tuition-free public all-girls middle school in East Baltimore, Maryland. She is a scholar-practitioner whose work sits at the intersection of Black educational thought, deeper learning pedagogy, and girls & leadership development.

Consolata Norbert is Founder and Executive Director of The Mango Tree School in Kenya, a girls' boarding school committed to leadership development, academic excellence, and community impact.

Schola Shimechero serves on the Board of The Mango Tree School and supports initiatives that expand leadership opportunities and global learning experiences for girls.

Learn more about the ICGS partnership with Lean In Girls, and how to bring the free program to your school, here.