With its latest endeavor, La Jolla High School is extending its reach far beyond the campus and even far outside the country. La Jolla High is developing an international sister school partnership with the Chess Academy of Baku, Azerbaijan. The partnership was formalized at a signing ceremony this month at San Diego State University, with guests including Vugar Gurbanov, consul general of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles, and Sarkhan Hashimov, a founding member and board member of the Vugar Gashimov Chess Foundation. Also in attendance were Cody Petterson, president of the San Diego Unified School District board, and La Jolla High senior Grant Nguyen Williams, president of the school Chess Club. The sister school initiative “will provide students from both schools with opportunities to engage in virtual exchanges, co-hosted chess tournaments and collaborative projects that highlight global citizenship and strategic thinking,” according to a news release. La Jolla High leaders also aim to create connections beyond borders and enable students to be “globally-minded learners.” The partnership with the Chess Academy is set to begin in the fall with hopes that it can expand to in-person events and exchanges. La Jolla High Principal Chuck Podhorsky said it hasn’t been determined what the new initiative will look like in the future. A formalized connection between San Diego and Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, has been in the works for a while. It’s bolstered by collaborators Martin Kruming of the Global Neighborhood Project and Michael McQuary of the San Diego International Sister Cities Association. The Global Neighborhood Project forms cultural and educational partnerships with neighborhoods across the globe, including in Azerbaijan, Latvia, Mongolia and Botswana. Cross-city collaborations are centered primarily on photography, storytelling and chess. Kruming, the project’s founder, said it has been working on a partnership between Baku and La Jolla for about five years. “They’re very interested in expanding it into the San Diego Unified School District … and who knows where else,” Kruming said. “Because chess is a global pastime, we can take it across the world.” McQuary served on the San Diego Unified school board between 2014 and 2022, representing District C, which includes La Jolla. He has been chairman of the San Diego International Sister Cities Association since 2017. After he and Kruming met about 10 years ago, they discussed ways to “form a more substantial connection” between sister cities and San Diego. The new program at La Jolla High is believed to be the first of its kind in SDUSD’s La Jolla Cluster of schools. But it isn’t La Jolla’s first brush with Azerbaijani chess competitors. The San Diego-Azerbaijan Youth Chess Tournament, now in its seventh year, used to take place at the La Jolla/Riford Library before moving to the Coronado Public Library. The event was a partnership of the La Jolla Chess Club, the consulate general of Azerbaijan and the Global Neighborhood Project. Today, McQuary said, San Diego has 16 sister cities as well as eight friendship cities, which Sister Cities International says are generally less formal partnerships. The benefits of cross-cultural projects are many, McQuary said, whether it be expanding students’ worldview or enabling them to share their stories, learn other languages or build cultural competency. “It gives them a contemporary context in which to experience the world, and not just out of a textbook or a TV,” McQuary said. “They could actually talk with … their peers in a meaningful way.” Podhorsky, who signed the agreement, concurred. “We hope our students understand themselves and their role in the community and the larger community outside of ours,” Podhorsky said. “Any opportunity to connect with different areas, different cultures and different regions only serves to help our students be better prepared as they go into adulthood.” ♦