Dear Friends,
Thank you for your incredible support! Together you donated $65,000, enough to bring a record 58 girls to our three-week Summer Program. Because of you, the Girls Leadership Institute community is stronger, more diverse, and more inclusive than ever before. I can’t imagine a better foundation for the future of leadership.To catch a glimpse of the summer magic, visit the photos on our Facebook page.
We are thrilled to announce our selection by the NoVo Foundation to receive an annual grant of $150,000 for three years. We feel grateful and honored to be collaborating with Jennifer and Peter Buffett and their extraordinary team. NoVo’s generous support allows us to be bold in our innovative approach to empowering adolescent girls by generating online resources available to girls and their influencers across the country.
With partners like you and NoVo, we are able to collaborate with exciting innovators in our field and develop the tools, awareness, and inspiration girls need to live a life of personal and societal leadership. From our girls, their families, and our staff, thank you!
All my best,
Simone Marean, Executive Director and Co-Founder, Girls Leadership Institute
In Her Own Words: The Impact of GLI’s Summer Program
GLI recently got a chance to speak with Nicole, age 13, a three-time GLI summer camp participant, about what initially drew her to the GLI Summer Program, what keeps her coming back, and how GLI has affected her life.
GLI: Nicole, is this your first summer here?
Nicole: This is actually my third summer. I started in 6th grade.
GLI: What drew you to GLI, and what’s kept you coming back?
Nicole: Initially, I had a cousin who came here, and she liked it. My mom then became really interested in the program. Then we did the Mother-Daughter workshop in New York City. It was really fun, and I learned a lot, so I wanted to go to the ten-day 6th grade summer camp program. It was a lot of fun, I made some amazing friends, and I learned a lot. And it’s the people here that have kept me coming back. Last year, it was amazing to see all my friends again and make new friends and have more experiences, I wanted to do it again. I came back this year and made even more friends and learned even more.
GLI: Can you tell us about some of the things you’ve learned at GLI?
Nicole: I’ve learned about how it’s okay to be yourself. While I’ve always been someone who’s confident — or looks confident and tries to speak my mind — sometimes you forget that it’s okay to be who you are and that you don’t have to change for anyone. And also I’ve learned skills to help me navigate my friendships at home or when I’m in a conflict. GLI’s also helped me learn to listen to how other people feel and take responsibility for what I’ve done and what I can do to improve that.
Girl Find: The Feelings Book
We’re delighted to have discovered The Feelings Book, a great resource to help young girls age 9-10 understand their emotions and how to deal with them in positive ways. The book is an excellent complement to the work at the core of the GLI curriculum. We discovered this book through A Mighty Girl – a terrific website with the world’s largest collection of books, toys, and movies for smart, confident, and courageous girls.
Check out the book and A Mighty Girl to help support, empower, and encourage the girls in your life.
In Her Own Words: GLI Tools
GLI recently spoke with Pearl, age 13, a two-time camp participant, about the GLI tools she’s learned about at our Summer Program over the past two years.
GLI: Tell us about the tools that you’ve learned about at GLI’s Summer Program.
Pearl: So last year, we had a GLI toolkit that we created over the three weeks. We learned The Four Steps, which we can use to help solve a conflict. We learned about Inside and Outside feelings, so if you’re speaking to someone you’re telling them about how you’re feeling on the inside and you can see how they’re feeling on the outside. And we talked about Body Language. And we also talked about [the metaphor of an] Overcoat, which is how [you control how] much you want to talk to someone and how much you want to reveal to someone when you’re talking to them.
GLI: And did you use that toolkit when you went home after camp last summer?
Pearl: Yeah. I had a conflict with a friend, and I was able to speak to her, telling her how I felt, using the tools I learned. That was good.
GLI: And are you learning new tools this second time around at camp?
Pearl: Yeah. We’ve also been learning about contribution — how different people in a conflict both contribute to it. And we’ve been talking about things like media literacy and body image and things like that, too.
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