Britain’s Prince Edward came to Baltimore just to meet these high school students

Prince Edward hopes his first meeting with the students at the oldest all-girls public school in the country won’t be his last.

In a room full of educators and dignitaries from Maryland and Great Britain, the Duke of Edinburgh told about 30 Western High School students, if they ever stand before him to receive a prestigious gold award in his youth achievement program, they should remind him where they first met.

“You might end up one day earning this pin,” said the duke, pointing to one on his suit. “We don’t earn it; you do. And that’s the magic of this.”

Prince Edward, the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, visited the Baltimore high school late Wednesday morning. It’s one of the seven city schools where students can seek the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award.

Students move through the program’s bronze, silver and gold levels, competing against themselves for personal growth rather than competing against one another. He asked the award hopefuls seated before him: What do you want to pursue? What skills do you want to improve?

His Royal Highness is visiting Baltimore during a four-day U.S. trip to “celebrate the relationship between the U.S. and the U.K., with a particular focus on shared interests around youth empowerment and opportunity, and the arts,” according to a news release. He’s visited New York and will head to D.C. next. Western was the only major stop on his Baltimore itinerary.

He was joined at Western by elected officials, including Del. Malcolm Ruff; state education officials such as Superintendent of Schools Carey Wright; and former state superintendent Nancy Grasmick, a Western graduate.

Jermaine Dawson, CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools, said he wants Baltimore to top the duke’s list when he thinks about the greatest cities in America with the brightest minds. He said he’s excited to show off Baltimore’s young people and “the way that they take ownership of their learning, how they push back when they need to.”

Select students at Western had the chance to chat with Prince Edward, whom Dawson described as down-to-earth and passionate about carrying on the youth program his father started in 1956.

“He is really relentless about young people really having agency in taking their lives and owning it, driving it,” Dawson said. “He wants every other young person to be able to imagine whatever future they so desire.”

Dawson previously brought the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award to Philadelphia schools.

Principal Brittany Horne-Baugh said her students called the duke “very talkative”; to reinforce their SAT vocabulary, Horne-Baugh recommended they call him “gregarious.” Members of the junior ROTC who presented the colors and choir members dressed in red, black and pearls sang for the duke before he spoke to students.

Prince Edward met privately with Western’s branch of Brown Girls International, a group of students that travels internationally every other year. Next summer, about 50 girls will head to Japan, Horne-Baugh said. This new award fits into what those students are already excited about.

“I’m looking forward to the networking and the opportunities that’s going to be provided for our young people in a world that does not always allow brown girls to shine or be leaders,” Horne-Baugh said.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award, open to people ages 14-24 in over 130 countries, has four core areas: skills, physical activity, volunteering and an adventurous journey, according to a City Schools news release.

“The experience is designed to foster determination, resourcefulness, creativity and stronger connections to community,” the release reads.

Andrew Yingling, program director for the award’s U.S. arm, said participating school districts have seen students get more involved with school and clubs and that participating students have higher acceptance rates into their top college choices. Baltimore City Public Schools is the first large district to offer the program in Maryland.

“I encourage young people to be looking at it as an opportunity for discovery,” Yingling said. “You might find out that this isn’t for me, but we’ll recognize the effort that you put in.”

Students at the Academy for College and Career Exploration, Baltimore City College, Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, Carver Vocational-Technical High School, Forest Park High School, Frederick Douglass High School and Western High School can sign up starting in 10th grade.

Prince Edward told the seven “very nervous-looking” principals who will guide students through the program that “they’ve got no idea what they’ve got themselves into” but added that they’ll “get as much out of this” as the high schoolers.

The experience will get high schoolers out of their comfort zone and off screens, Dawson said. They’ll think critically and solve problems.

“I own the quest to make sure that we have a global, international focus for our young people that is bigger than just the five-mile radius of where you live,” Dawson said. “We live in a global market now. And our young people need to be able to have that.”

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.