A Thomas Stone High School senior will head to New York City later this month for International Day of the Girl events at the United Nations. Olivia Saint-Pierre will attend the conference with other members of Stella’s Girls, an organization that works to empower girls and women.
While in NYC, Saint-Pierre will serve as a moderator for Girls Speak Out 2026, a discussion revolving around issues affecting girls around the world. This year’s theme is Girls Speak Out: Advancing Equality, Accelerating Action.
The group of girls moderating the event has been meeting each Saturday over Zoom since August. “We practice our delivery to make sure it sounds like us. We don’t want to sound like we’re talking at people,” Saint-Pierre said. The teens meet and collaborate with Kimberly Happich Molcohe, co-chairperson of the Working Group on Girls (WGG). The group is an alliance of non-governmental organizations focused on advancing the well-being of girls around the world.
The in-person Girls Speak Out event on Oct. 9 will be held on the floor of an UN meeting room among the iconic blond wood lecture seating while also being livestreamed and attended by others virtually.
Moderators introduce policy makers and experts — along with topics — who are familiar with issues important to girls and young women around the world. Discussions have revolved around ending child marriage, the importance of and access to education and ending gender-based violence and discrimination against girls. Other time is allotted to discussion of increasing girls’ participation and leadership in social and political life. The conference will stream Oct. 9 on UN Web TV.
Saint-Pierre said that the convention is inspiring. “Girls need to know that they can,” she said, of empowering others. “When they see girls who are around their age going into these big spaces and going to speak to such important people about issues that matter, it makes them want to be there as well and that their voices can actually make a change.”
Kaprese James, founder and CEO of Stella’s Girls, seconded that thought. “Our girls need to know that where they begin does not determine how far their voices can reach,” she said. “Whether a girl is sitting in a classroom in Charles County or participating in a global conversation, she should know that her ideas, experiences and leadership matter.”
At Stone, Saint-Pierre is a member of the Student Government Association, National Honor Society and is the school’s student liaison to the Board of Education of Charles County. She is in the Project Lead the Way: Biomedical Sciences pathway and co-founded Stone’s Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) club. She was on the NAACP youth committee last year and is active in theater and yearbook. She wants to attend New York University (NYU) or Rutgers University where she plans to study to become a pediatric nurse.
Stella’s Girls
Saint-Pierre has been in Stella’s Girls since she was in eighth grade at Benjamin Stoddert Middle School. When she began attending Thomas Stone as a freshman, she continued to stay involved in the group.
This year marks the fourth the group has traveled to New York City to attend Girls Speak Out. James founded Stella’s Girls in 2016 to empower girls and young women through education, mentorship and leadership development, according to the organization’s website. James was inspired to name the organization Stella’s Girls to honor her late grandmother, Estelle B. “Stella” Weaver.
James was elected co-chairperson of the Working Group on Girls and will support the coalition’s priorities. The WGG brings organizations together that are dedicated to ensuring the perspectives and priorities of girls are considered and championed by countries leaders.
Girls Speak Out is a program through the WGG which came about through the 1995 ratification of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action as a global agenda for the empowerment of all women and girls. The platform for action has been called the blueprint for advancing women’s rights.
About CCPS
Charles County Public Schools provides 27,904 students in grades prekindergarten through 12 with an academically challenging education. Located in Southern Maryland, Charles County Public Schools has 38 schools that offer a technologically advanced, progressive and high quality education that builds character, equips for leadership and prepares students for life, careers and higher education.
The Charles County public school system does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age or disability in its programs, activities or employment practices. For inquiries, please contact Dr. Mike Blanchard, Title IX/ADA/Section 504 Coordinator (students) or Nikial M. Majors, Title IX/ADA/Section 504 Coordinator (employees/ adults), at Charles County Public Schools, Jesse L. Starkey Administration Building, P.O. Box 2770, La Plata, MD 20646; 301-932-6610/301-870-3814. For special accommodations call 301-934-7230 or TDD 1-800-735-2258 two weeks prior to the event. CCPS provides nondiscriminatory equal access to school facilities in accordance with its Use of Facilities rules to designated youth groups (including, but not limited to, the Boy Scouts).