Dear Friends,
Because of your help and support, the GLI team is growing this month! Our first Director of Development, Adriana Solís López, starts at GLI next week. I am excited to work with Adriana on growing GLI capacity. With her guidance, GLI will be able to reach more girls, provide more programs at a free or reduced cost, launch our research initiative, and begin outreach to families and teachers who don’t have access to our educational programs. Read on to learn more about Adriana’s background and why she chose to join GLI.
GLI couldn’t finish March without celebrating International Women’s Day. Look at all women have accomplished in the past year!
We want to hear from you! Check out Alumni Reflections below to tell us how GLI programs are changing your life.
Finally, don’t miss out on GLI blogger Melissa Mark’s piece about our newest Summer Camp program for returning alumnae, the Bold Body Project. And if you are considering summer camp, don’t wait. Many of our programs just have a few spots left.
I look forward to hearing from you.
All my best,
Simone
Welcome to Our Director of Development
Adriana Solís López is thrilled to join GLI as our first Director of Development, and we’re thrilled to have her! There were many steps on Adriana’s journey to GLI: Adriana grew up in a Southeast Los Angeles community without a lot of occupational guidance, and where nonprofit work was never mentioned as a career possibility. Yet after working her way through community college and then returning to school for a degree in history from UC Berkeley, she knew she wanted to serve her community in the nonprofit field.
For Adriana, joining GLI and working to empower the next generation of girls is like drinking a “cup of fresh water” and a source of boundless joy. GLI is serious about growing, and in her new role as Director of Development, Adriana hopes to increase accessibility so that more girls and their parents can take advantage of GLI’s programs. And she can’t wait to get know the GLI supporters who helped make her position possible: “I’m really looking forward to meeting the staff and supporters of GLI, as well as the girls we serve. I feel like I’m a part of GLI’s extended community now.”
Women’s History Month
March is Women’s History Month, and on March 8, our favorite day of our favorite month, we celebrated International Women’s Day. Since its 1909 inception in the United States, International Women’s Day has been an important opportunity to celebrate, honor, and reflect on the lives and accomplishments of women across the globe. Here at GLI, we’d like to pause to look back on the tremendous strides made over the past year in the fight for women’s rights.
In a year of firsts for women, the number of female senators rose to a record twenty –– including Wisconsin Democrat Tammy Baldwin, the first openly gay U.S. senator. The House passed a bipartisan reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), and a key provision of the Affordable Care Act went into effect, granting 47 million women access to affordable contraception and preventive care. 2012 also saw increased attention to matters of gender equality from international rights bodies: the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) convened its largest forum to date, bringing together 2,239 women’s rights activists from 140 countries to advocate for stronger feminist engagement with issues of economic power.
Women have made incredible achievements this past year, but the fight for gender equality is far from over. So let this month of celebrating women around the globe be an opportunity to take a stand in your community, support a women-focused organization, or encourage the girls in your life on their path towards empowerment. If we support girls’ leadership now, just imagine what these girls will accomplish in years to come!
Alumni Reflections
Over the past year, GLI touched thousands of families and girls through our programs in California, Colorado, New Jersey, and New York.
GLI workshop alumni, we would love to hear from you about how you and your daughter are using the tools and skills you learned. Take this opportunity to reflect with your daughter about how she (and you) are putting the skills into practice. Maybe there was a specific situation where the skills were useful? Maybe there was one tool or one approach that really stuck for you or your daughter?
Please share with us –– or even better, if you have a daughter who is a budding writer, have her write to us! Your thoughts can be entered in the form here. We would be delighted to read your story and share it with our community.
Bold Body Project by Melissa Mark, Two-Time GLI Camper
This year, I am looking forward to the Bold Body Project, an artistic endeavor to be presented to both GLI girls and other audiences in the wider world. We will explore how society and media influence body image. What’s great about this project is that you don’t have to be a skilled actress or artist to participate; it’s suitable for people of all abilities. I’m especially thankful for this because I don’t view myself as a natural performer. My goal for camp this year is to become more comfortable presenting my ideas before a live audience.
I’ve always wanted to make an impact on the world, and I hope that this project will give me a head start. I also hope the viewers of the Bold Body Project performances are inspired to change their personal beliefs about their body image, and in turn share the message and become an advocate for healthy body image in their communities too! I can’t wait to work with everyone on the project and to see the results. I know that this summer will be amazing!
To read more from Melissa, click here!
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