STL Public Radio: All-Girls STEM Charter Could Open In 2015

Six years ago Mary Stillman attended a lecture by Ann Tisch at Washington University.

“That was my ah-ha moment,” Stillman recalls. “Here she is talking about this group of public schools for girls who wouldn’t otherwise have this model of education and it’s working.”

Tisch is the founder of the Young Women’s Leadership Network, which operates a network of all-girls public schools and boasts a 93 percent graduation rate at its flagship institution in East Harlem.

Four years later, Stillman, who is the daughter of former U.S. Sen. John Danforth, began laying the groundwork for an all-girls charter school focused on STEM education -- science, technology, engineering and mathematics. And if all goes according to plan, the Hawthorn Leadership School for Girls will open its doors in August 2015 for sixth and seventh graders. It hopes eventually to expand to serve 500 girls through 12th grade by 2020.