On International Women’s Day--March 8, 2025--six Sacred Heart Academy students traveled with Jean Frazier Leadership Institute Director Lauren Hitron ’99 and Program Manager Lauren Coffey to New York City to attend the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). Providing authentic leadership experiences is a central component to the Jean Frazier Leadership Institute and Sacred Heart Academy, and for a few pivotal days in NYC, these students had the opportunity to see the impact of leadership on one of the biggest stages of international relations and government.
Katherine Borthwick, Emma Elstner, Catherine Miller, Brigid McConville, Kathryn Fuller, and Arden Garrett also engaged with teen girls from other Ursuline Education Network schools and networked with SHA alumnae currently living in NYC. These Valkyries returned to Louisville motivated and empowered to address women’s global issues and implement solutions in their own communities.
Hitron was impressed with the students’ ability to apply what they’ve learned in the classroom to the real world at the UN: “Our students confidently engaged with women from around the world working to improve the lives of women and girls.” She was proud that the SHA students engaged in meaningful conversations throughout the week about the complex issues they were faced with during the commission. “They made me incredibly hopeful for the future!”
Students attended events sponsored by member states' governments on women’s issues such as human trafficking, impacts of technology and the digital world, leadership, political participation, economic empowerment, women’s health, human rights, and more. A highlight was attending a session sponsored by UNICEF POWER4GIRLS: Invest in Girls, Transform the World. Students will apply what they learned on the trip and create a presentation and proposal for action to share with the SHA community.
While in the Big Apple, students had the opportunity to meet with students from three other schools in the Ursuline Education Network: Ursuline Academy in Wilmington, Delaware, Saint Ursula Academy in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Ursuline Academy of New Orleans, along with the UEN Director, Peggy McCormick Platz. The SHA group attended an opening teen orientation at Convent of the Sacred Heart, the oldest all-girls school in New York City, with students from other UEN schools and high school girls from around the world.
The six juniors and seniors navigated most of the trip, choosing which UN sessions to attend and what other NYC landmarks to visit, including the NYC Public Library, Grand Central Station, Rockefeller Plaza, the Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument in Central Park, Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a Broadway show, Times Square, and 9/11 Memorial.
Proving that the SHA Sisterhood creates a lifelong bond and that the SHA alumnae network is a powerful tool both in Louisville and around the country, the students had breakfast with three alumnae who currently live and work in NYC. Haylen Wehr ’22 currently attends Northeastern University and is an intern at Hermes; Nora Cummins ’22 is a New York University Economics major and will intern at JP Morgan Chase this summer; and Catherine Kosse Moss ’12, a Senior Manager with PwC Consulting, spoke with current students about their college and work experiences and the realities of living in a big city.
Senior Catherine Miller appreciated the candid conversation with alumnae: “I really valued their advice when it came to transitioning from high school to college, especially because I'm also going to college in a big city. They helped me feel more confident about the transition from Louisville to a big city and feel secure in my abilities to do well in the workforce.” As SHA graduates often say, “Once a Valkyrie, always a Valkyrie,” and Forever Valkyries Haylen, Nora, and Catherine demonstrated that the Sacred Heart connection remains strong well after graduation!
Besides seeing the inner workings of the United Nations and NGOs, the students also learned a lot about leadership—a Core Value of their Ursuline education at Sacred Heart Academy. Junior Katherine Borthwick reflected on the experience: “Since returning from the CSW I have a whole new perspective on leadership. I found so many great female role models there from all around the world, some even the same age as me. So many inspiring women at the convention showed me how I can impact and change the world one bit at a time. Seeing so many people from all over the world gathered together to work towards change was such an eye-opening experience. I want to be one of them one day.”
Arden Garrett, a junior at SHA, found that the experience helped solidify her perspective on leadership. She reiterated a central theme of Sacred Heart’s JFLI program: Everyone can learn to lead. Garrett remarked, “I saw that being a leader does not necessarily mean that you are the loudest in the room or the most important, but it means that you have taken steps to fight for a cause that you are passionate about, such as attending the Commission, for the sake of others who cannot.”
For the six students who traveled to New York to participate in the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, the experience helped solidify the importance of experiential, real-world learning and inspired them to exhibit leadership for causes they believe in. Garrett thought that “these types of opportunities open our eyes to problems that cannot be taught in the classroom because they need to be experienced rather than taught.” Through this travel experience, our Valkyries are more prepared to demonstrate leadership now, in their communities, and later, wherever in the world they find themselves after graduation.
