Global Partnership Program Baldwin’s Global Partnership Program is a unique opportunity for our students to learn about people of different cultures by “walking in others’ shoes” for a day, a week or a month. Whether they are working with students five miles down the road or orphans in Tanzania, our girls are developing friendships with other students in ways they never imagined while learning about themselves in ways that will last a lifetime.

International Partnerships Baldwin is a school known for its diverse student body from many different cultures, religions and backgrounds.  This, combined with the intellectual curiosity of our students, has enabled Baldwin to design a Global Partnership Program which is unique in this area. For 20 years, The Baldwin School and The Shipley School have co-sponsored a French Exchange Program with Notre Dame de Mongré in Villefranche, France. Every other year, 25 Upper School Baldwin girls experience total immersion in the French culture by traveling to the Lyon region for two weeks to live with a family, attend Notre Dame de Mongré, and spend a few days in Paris. The following year, the French students come to live with our students, attend Baldwin, and experience the same type of cultural exchange. The connections between the French and Baldwin families have developed into long-lasting friendships. Pierette O’Neal began this partnership in 1988. Today her daughter, Lori Clark, and colleague, Josiane Mariette, oversee this program. When Sally Powell became Head of School at Baldwin in 2006, she told our community that she felt like she had gone back to the English school that she attended as a child. This piqued the curiosity of our Middle Schoolers and led to a partnership was with the Perse School in Cambridge, England.  Since that time, every September we eagerly host eight Perse students and send our Baldwin hostesses over to live with them in June and attend school. Our students also initiate these partnerships. In 2007, Nadia Tareen '11 approached the school’s administration and proposed a partnership between Girls Learn International (GLI) and Baldwin. Through GLI, Baldwin has partnered with a class at the Khanote School, an all-girls school in the Sindh region of Pakistan. We have exchanged scrapbooks, written short letters which Nadia’s mother has translated, made friendship bracelets and other crafts, and set up exhibits to educate the Baldwin community about the challenges and importance of educating girls in other parts of the world. Baldwin girls have always had a great interest in both learning about, and helping, others. Our partnership with the Rift Valley Children’s Village (RVCV) in Karatu, Tanzania offers both students and faculty that opportunity. For four years, we have sent a faculty member and several students to the RVCV to work with the children at the orphanage as well as to assist teachers at the local Gyetighi School. Our partnership with them offers us opportunities for all our community service groups to be involved both with fundraising and hands-on projects. It is also a unique chance for teachers to use the exchange to foster meaningful relationships and lessons through projects such as pen pals with the younger children, writing a simple computer manual for them with the middle schoolers, and participating in their microfinance program for our older girls.

Domestic Partnerships In addition to our international relationships, Baldwin also has several local partnerships. One is with the Overbrook School for the Blind, a school which has been a leader for educating blind and visually impaired children since 1832. Our students have helped at the school in previous years by working with students with multiple handicaps, helping to set up for their prom, working with them on service projects, and developing friendships through email. Recently, we have established a student exchange to visit each other's campus for classes, Braille lessons and lunch. Through our Community Service Program, we have also established a partnership with Family Support Services (FSS), Inc,  a private, non-profit social services agency established in 1976 which serves children and their families in Philadelphia and Delaware Counties.  Each month, FSS meets with parents/guardians to offer instruction on what services are available to families, literacy support and connections to preventive health care resources.  On these nights, Baldwin students assist FSS staff in care-taking of children – thus providing the parents the opportunity to fully involve themselves in these meetings and the children with a safe, interactive and fun environment.  We also have sponsored a Holiday Party for the children.