This past September, Mount St. Mary Academy launched our first-ever Lean In Girls Program for our Freshman Honors Cohort.
Lean In Girls™ is a global leadership initiative that stems from Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In™ movement, which empowers women in the workplace. It is designed to help young girls gain confidence, practice leadership skills, explore their values, and build resilience.
Students in our Freshman Honors class meet once a week to participate in activities and discussions designed to visit important and relevant topics, such as bias, stereotypes, gender equality, allyship, and inclusivity. This year, the group has discussed topics such as:
- Knowing your own individual strengths and values
- Challenging stereotypes and overcoming bias
- Male vs. female leaders in the business industry
- Female empowerment in the media
- Positive female friendships
- Mental health wellness practices for teenage girls, and setting healthy goals
Our students are enjoying being involved in the program, especially in their first year at Mount St. Mary Academy:
“In the Lean In Program, I have really liked learning about women in power. While there aren’t as many women in power as men, Lean In has been a great inspiration to try to get as many women in power as possible!”
“Lean In has shown me that while there are hard gender stereotypes, we can still overcome them!”
“I like being able to support and listen to each other during our discussions.”
Ms. Lily Bayley, MSM Guidance Counselor for Grades 9-11, shares her experience teaching the MSM Lean In Girls Program:
“I’ve noticed that the girls enjoy how the program is tailored to girls. It gives them an open, comfortable space to talk about the unique challenges teen girls face. I’ve noticed that the girls are very interested in learning about the specific barriers and challenges that women in leadership face, and different ways to overcome them. They are eager to share their own experiences where they’ve seen or faced bias.”
Newsweek Magazine interviewed Archana Gilravi, the Senior Vice President of Lean In Girls, about how this program has been impactful to students all over the world!
“The program focuses on a four-part curriculum that teaches girls to recognize their strengths and build leadership skills, challenge stereotypes by reframing failure and setting healthy goals, overcome biases and both internal and external barriers to success and become an ally to call out unfair treatment and actively create a better, more equitable world.” Archana Gilravi, Newsweek Magazine, 2025.
“There are two things that we see happen: By going through the program, girls are building relationships with each other that go beyond their friend group and we talk about active ways to advocate for each other. We get feedback that girls are doing much more advocating of others if they see somebody else in trouble, and that’s kind of the ethos of the program.” – Archana Gilravi, Newsweek Magazine, 2025.
Click the link below to read the full article from Newsweek Magazine!
