Empower a Middle School Girl

Greetings everyone,

The 4GIRLS Organization is excited to share all of the empowerment activities that have taken place since our last update.

In December, 4GIRLS participants had the opportunity to attend a terrific Leadership Forum for girls and women held in Long Beach, CA. Councilwoman Suzie Price, Wilson High School Principal Dr. Sandy Blazer, VP of Operations at Hotel Maya Kristi Allen and City Auditor Laura Doud spearheaded the informative and interesting event. The girls had the opportunity to ask questions of these community leaders and learned a lot about the role of women in government, education and business.

Then in January, we held Empowerment Events in two cities (Long Beach and Anaheim) where we took groups of girls to see the movie “Hidden Figures”- the story of a team of real-life African-American women mathematicians at NASA who played an instrumental role during the early years of the US space program. These women excelled and accomplished great things despite encountering significant obstacles in their lives. In line with this theme, after the movie we conducted an activity with the girls where we shared examples of other influential women who have overcome significant adversity in their lives and discussed ways of addressing and changing negative thought patterns in order to help oneself overcome obstacles. The movie and discussion were definitely empowering and inspiring!

And, recently we held a fantastically fun hula event where we learned the history and meaning of hula and about the differences in the various Polynesian dance styles. We learned how to tell a story and express ourselves through dance. The instructor taught us a hula dance that she choreographed specifically for us to the song “How Far I’ll Go” from the movie “Moana”. The story of “Moana” is about a young girl who finds her voice and forges her own identity. The movie’s message is very aligned to the mission of the 4GIRLS Organization so this was a perfect song choice to have the girls interpret through dance.

Our focus in March will be dedicated to our upcoming 7^th annual 4GIRLS Workshop which will take place on April 29^th and 30^th. We have a great agenda and terrific subject matter experts lined up for the event. And, we are eagerly looking forward to welcoming another group of amazing girls to the program!

We are firm believers in the power of sharing, so please feel free to share our mission with others as we are always looking for individuals who are willing to offer up their time, talent or treasure! Thank you for your continued interest and support of our program.

 Sincerely,

 The 4GIRLS Board of Directors

Links:

• 4GIRLS Organization