Schools participating in the 2022 Summit:

Brooks School

Buckingham Browne & Nichols School Cushing Academy

Deerfield Academy

Fay School

The Governor’s Academy

Holderness School

Lawrence Academy

Middlesex School New Hampton School

Pomfret School

The Williston Northampton School

With support from Cushing’s administration, especially Sarah Catlin, now the director of student affairs, she created the program and reached out to colleagues at other boarding schools, recruiting 13 institutions to participate in the inaugural Girls in Sports Leadership Summit in 2018. It continued to grow, even through the pandemic, and returned in-person in 2022.

The idea is simple: recognize young women who are leading and share a tool kit of skills to do it even better. The five-hour program includes a keynote address and workshop sessions with girls from different schools mixed together, sharing ideas.

Carly Barbato, the sports information director at Deerfield Academy, brought five athletes this year and has been an enthusiastic participant since the start. “I’m incredibly grateful to Cushing and Jen for putting on this conference,” she says. “It’s incredibly important to give young women this space to learn about themselves.”

Ak adia Ndur ’23, a Cushing junior who plays volleyball and lacrosse, loved Alaeze-Dinma’s talk, connecting with students from other schools, and thinking about what her own leadership values are (she identified respect and optimism). She sees how the lessons from the Summit translate into life beyond the court or the field. “Something that stuck with me is talking about taking the temperature of the room, whether that’s with your team or in the workplace,” says Akadia. “I could use that throughout my life, not just in sports.”