Board President’s Reflections – February 2024
by Danielle Heard, President of the ICGS Governing Board of Directors and Head of Nashoba Brooks School
“We’re going to be the internet.”
“We’re going to be the internet.”“I’m sorry, what?” was the best response I could muster when the oldest students in our school explained their plans to utilize their “senior prank” to transform our school into a physical representation of the internet. I will confess that my brain (analog by default) struggled to make sense of the vision created by our students who have grown up in our increasingly digital world.
These students exercised great patience as they explained to me that they would position themselves throughout the school as interactive stations within the invisible network of connections. Individual students would become hubs for interactive engagement on their internet–search engines, email addresses, social media platforms, advertisements, etc.—and younger students could connect with them to conduct research, communicate, and amplify ideas. This “prank” was a brilliant representation of what our students are capable of when we equip them with the skills and space they need to foster curiosity, seek creative solutions, build connections, and lead. As the ICGS Governing Board of Directors gathered earlier this month to conduct our fiduciary, strategic, and generative work on behalf of our member schools, this memory of the students at my school surfaced as a small, but significant, metaphor for the work of our Coalition.
During our meetings, the ICGS Board focused on the skills, attributes and learning outcomes that our students need to become ethical, globally-minded changemakers, and what leadership of girls requires at this time in our global society. Through these discussions, I was struck both by the exceptional wisdom in the room, and the invaluable strength and reach of our ICGS network.
The ICGS network connects us across grade levels, school structures, oceans, and continents to leverage our shared wisdom, experience, and imagination. With wonderful momentum from our regional Educating Girls Symposiums that have taken place in Kent (UK) and Los Angeles (US), I look forward to learning with and learning from our colleagues at the next Educating Girls Symposium in Melbourne, and expanding the reach of our coalition’s work at the 2024 ICGS Conference in June.
I always find the ICGS Annual Conference to be one of the stand-out events of the year, with key takeaways for my team to put to work immediately and other insights to fuel our strategic thinking. My school’s team continues to draw on notes from various sessions we attended in Cleveland at the 2023 ICGS Conference, including the growing body of Global Action Research Collaborative on Girls’ Education (GARC) research focused on real-time research in girls’ schools, and look forward to being part of this exciting work with one of our very own joining the new cohort of GARC Fellows. This year’s conference in Baltimore promises to spark new creative thinking and pathways for connection through an array of compelling sessions and inspiring keynote speakers, including world-renowned conductor Marin Alsop. The tangible return on investment of these programs is always considerable and lasting, but the connections we build with each other as colleagues and champions of girls’ schools around the world is truly beyond measure.
Whether building new connections through in-person events, amplifying the impact of our experiences through virtual connections such as the Headways discussion series, or sharing our collective wisdom through The Connected Girl podcast, the ICGS coalition—like the creative imaginations of our students—transforms aspirational vision into tangible reality. I look forward to connecting with all of you soon—through our online ICGS networks, in-person interactive hubs of engagement, or newly imagined opportunities of our creation.