Oasis's Technology & Leadership Program for Girls!

After serving over 70 girls through our College & Career Program over the last two years since acquiring the program from GirlSource, we've decided to add two new program elements this Spring to support participants in enhancing their leadership skills, planning for post secondary education, and exploring future careers.

Through our Sisterhood, we'll create progressive opportunities for girls to build leadership skills from one program to the next with unique roles based on their tenure at the organization:

• Oasis Girls (girls enrolled in their first Oasis program):  Undertake program leadership roles (Sous Chef, Inspirational Guru, Tour Guide, Dust Bunny, and Ice Breaker Leader)
• Oasis Sistahs (girls enrolled in their second Oasis program):  Manage programmatic leadership roles by assigning roles, prepping girls for their roles, and following up to ensure that roles are completed. 
• Oasis Queens (girls enrolled in their third Oasis program):  Internal responsibilities include planning, implementing, and evaluating program wide events including Girls Nite, Family Nite, Career Nite, and Graduation.
• Oasis Divas (girls enrolled in their fourth Oasis program): External responsibilities including working with the Executive Director on program planning, funder site visits, board meetings, and community meetings. 

With enhanced leadership skills, Oasis girls will have the confidence to be active agents for positive change in their own lives, the lives of their Oasis sisters, and their larger community. 

In addition, girls in the College & Career program will create a personalized Next Steps Transition Plan over the course of the program.  A customized binder created by each girl, the Next Steps Transition Plan will contain sections for program materials, academic progress reports, an aptitudes/interests/career worksheet, a My First Choice Colleges list, an academic coursework roadmap, a list of individual contacts (Sistahs Who Support Me) and community resources.  The format fosters reflection, reinforces skill development, and establishes connections between choices and outcomes. To be shared with other girls, family, and friends at graduation, the Next Steps Transition Plan will be a key resource and guide as girls continue to navigate the path toward college and career.  

Stay tuned for more exciting updates on Oasis For Girls College & Career Program and thank you for your ongoing support!   

It's been a year or so since Oasis acquired the Technology & Leadership Program from a sister organization that had to close its doors, and we've had a chance to explore, revise, and grow the program to maximize its benefits to the great girls and young women we serve.

So, we'd like to introduce you to the new and improved program, which will now be known as the Oasis College & Career Program. An essential element of our year-long Springboard Series for Girls, the new C&C Program will help Oasis girls open new doors to a world these girls have rarely glimpsed.

In just the past year, the C&C Program has packed their lives full of wonderful "first time" experiences. On just our recent trip to the campus of UC Berkeley, for example, there were so many "firsts": 

• The first time some of them had ever walked on a university campus;
• The first time they had seen academic excellence embodied in women of color;
• The first time they had ever watched a capacity crowd cheering for talented female athletes;
• The first time they ever heard the words, "This campus could be a great fit for your talents...."

And that trip was just one dream made possible through the support of our partners. There have been others, too:

• The trip to Google's headquarters in Silicon Valley, where the girls met young women who had made the leap into the realm of global technological innovation;
• The trip to the hip-hop dance class at Dance Mission, where could could celebrate and embrace the cultural gifts of their own generation;
• The trip to the San Francisco Food Bank, where the girls developed a deeper understanding of the connections between food access and social justice....

So by supporting just the past year of College & Career, you have helped pave the way for Oasis girls to discover the connections between their high school lives and the worlds of academics, athletics, arts, technology, and equity: You helped them discover -- and claim their place in -- the larger worlds around them.

Links:

• NBC Interviews our ED and Oasis girl Linda Luna!