Transforming Baltimore Through Young Women in Leadership

Originally published by Baltimore’s CHILD on May 20, 2024
By Jillian Diamond, Photo by Suave Visions

Baltimore’s CHILD magazine interviews D’Aria, an alumna of Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women (BLSYW). BLSYW is an affiliate of our Young Women’s Leadership Network.

D’aria was the first in her family to go to college. Currently, the East Baltimore resident is a junior at Bennett College, an HBCU (historically Black college or university), and plans to become a teacher when she graduates in 2025.

But Couther says she could not have achieved this goal—and have been recognized by the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence and Economic Opportunity as one of their 86 HBCU scholars—alone.

From sixth through 12th grades, Couther attended the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women (BLSYW), a girls’ college preparatory charter school with a focus on helping growing girls develop leadership skills. According to the school’s website, BLSYW was the city’s first-ever all-girls middle and high school when it first opened its doors in 2009. “I was raised in a family of all boys—I was the only girl,” Couther recalls. “I wanted to have the experience of having a sister.”

Couther attended public school when she was in elementary school, but BLSYW differed from that more generalized education because of its focus on preparing girls for college and helping them get into the universities of their choice.