Posted by girlsincchatt on June 15, 2009
Girls Incorporated of Chattanooga was one of three Girls Inc. affiliates in the country to win a Family Strengthening Award for $10,000, which is funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and awarded by Girls Inc. national.
This prestigious award focuses on the Girls Inc. outreach efforts with the families of the girls participating in the Cross-Cultural Transitions Program. Most of these families are first-generation immigrants from Guatemala.
In conjunction with the Cross-Cultural Transition program, which works with rising seventh grade African-American and Latina girls, Girls Inc. works with parents and families to emphasize the importance of completing high school and college. Girls Inc. also offers workshops for families on college preparation, financial aid, employment, access to health care and available community resources.
Not only will this grant continue funding this component of the program, but Girls Inc. of Chattanooga also will be featured in a video for other Girls Inc. affiliates, lead a webinar with the two other winners and attend a conference in Indianapolis, Indiana to teach other affiliates about our program.
Posted in After-school programs, Girls Inc. National, Help Us Help Girls | Tagged: Annie E. Casey Foundation, Awards, Family, Grants, Latinas | Leave a Comment »
Posted by girlsincchatt on May 28, 2009
Two Chattanooga Girls Inc. girls were awarded prestigious college scholarships from the national Girls Inc. Markesha Dunham, a rising college freshman who graduated this month from the Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences and Kermisha Tate, a rising senior at the Boyd-Buchanan School, were each awarded scholarships for $2,500.
Kermisha Tate and Markesha Dunham
Markesha Dunham, recipient of the Lucille Miller Wright Scholarship, was only one of five national scholars selected to speak at a business luncheon in New York City where the awards were given.
Dunham will attend Berea College in Berea, Kentucky this fall. She plans to major in women’s studies and ultimately hopes to become a doctor. She has been actively involved with Girls Inc. programming since seventh grade and is currently volunteering with the organization.
“I feel that it is my calling to have a career that helps women in some way, and since I am interested in medicine, and an OB/GYN is a nice marriage of the two,” Dunham said.
Kermisha Tate was awarded a Verizon Scholarship Grant. In addition to serving as a co-president at Boyd-Buchanan, Tate has served on the Leadership Team and the Infant Mortality Public Awareness Campaign for Tennessee (I.M.P.A.C.T.). While working on I.M.P.A.C.T., Tate was exposed to the field of graphic design and communications. Tate hopes to attend Georgia Tech to get a degree in computer science and minor in graphic design.
“Once I graduate, I want to go back to school to get a Masters of Business Administration because my ultimate goal is to have my own graphic design company.” Tate said.
In their scholarship essays, both girls wrote that Girls Inc. has helped them understand their right to be themselves and resist gender stereotypes.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Girls Inc. National, News | Tagged: scholarships | Leave a Comment »
Posted by girlsincchatt on April 10, 2009
Math is everywhere–in the playroom, in the kitchen, and on the bus. Thanks to TERC, an education research and development organization in Cambridge, MA, girls in Chattanooga will be doing more math as part of their everyday lives. In March 2009, Girls Incorporated of Chattanooga received a donation of 18 “At home with math” family games and activity booklets. The materials, designed for children from 5 to 11, show how math can keep everyone occupied while waiting in line, cleaning up, and making dinner. Development of “At home with math” was funded in part by the National Science Foundation.
Girls Inc. will include the games in our upcoming summer camps–SciGirls during June and Operation SMART(R) during July.
“Math is a critical skill for our girls to master,” said Bea Lurie, President and CEO of Girls Incorporated of Chattanooga. “At Girls Inc. we try to dispel the stereotypes surrounding math, science and technology and encourage our girls to succeed in those areas.”
For ideas on putting math into everyday family life in English and Spanish, see http://athomewithmath.terc.edu. More ideas for math games and activities for families, afterschool and camp programs, and libraries can be found on http://mixinginmath.terc.edu.
Posted in Camp, Girls Inc. National, STEM | Leave a Comment »
Posted by girlsincchatt on March 27, 2009
Yesterday, Girls Inc. national President & CEO penned an op-ed on President Obama’s White House Council on Women and Girls in the Huffington Post.
As the President and CEO of Girls Incorporated-the nonprofit organization that has inspired girls to be strong, smart, and bold for 145 years — I am intimately familiar with the crippling effects of gender-based economic injustice on the girls of this country. Sixty-five percent of the more that 900,000 girls we reach each year, live in families earning less than $25,000 a year; nearly half are growing up in single-parent households, most headed by women. In families that struggle to make ends meet, girls in particular are called on to take up part of the responsibility for cooking, cleaning, and looking after younger siblings. As a result, they miss out on critical opportunities for growth and development, and the system of inequality perpetuates itself.
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Posted by girlsincchatt on March 25, 2009
Recently, Markesha Dunham, a senior at CSAS and Kermisha Tate, a junior at Boyd-Buchanan School, won national scholarships from Girls Incorporated. Markesha was in New York City for the I.M.P.A.C.T. trip during the awards presentation and participated in this video from Girls Inc.
Jasmine Ray, Markesha Dunaham (scholarship winner) and Cora Lanier, Director of Program Operations, at the Girls Inc. awards luncheon.
Posted in Girls Inc. National, News | Leave a Comment »
Posted by girlsincchatt on February 12, 2009
Girls Inc. national and ING Foundation are launching an investment pilot program in New York, California and Denver. ING will work with girls for three years to maintain a real-time investment portfolio. At the end of the period, 75% of profits will be split among the participants as scholarships and 25% given to their Girls Inc. affiliate. The original $50,000 principal will be reassigned to incoming teams.
Girls Inc. of Chattanooga includes Economic Literacy components in most of our after-school programs and summer camps. It is critical that girls learn sound financial decisions in order for them to achieve economic stability in their lives. 80% of those in poverty are women and children. We aim to help the next generation of women become savvy consumers and smart with their finances in order to break the cycle of poverty that exist in many of their lives.
Posted in Economic Literacy, Girls Inc. National | Leave a Comment »
Posted by girlsincchatt on January 26, 2009
Joyce M. Roche’, the national President & CEO was featured in Sunday’s New York Times.
As a pioneering African-American business woman, Ms. Roche’ not only has the business acumen to successfully lead the organization, but decades of fighting for the cause of women and girls.
She describes growing up in segregated Southern Louisiana:
When I was growing up, segregation was real. When we rode the bus, there was something we called the screen. African-Americans, or Negroes as we were called then, were expected to sit behind a piece of wood. Since where we lived had movie theaters and grocery stores, it was only when we traveled to Canal Street to department stores that segregation was most noticeable.
On career choices open to African-American women:
As a black female, I expected to be a nurse, a teacher or a social worker. I had an English teacher in high school who made me feel like an A student, even though I was a strong B student. She became the person I could see myself being.
Click here to read the entire profile.
Posted in Girls Inc. National, News | Tagged: Joyce Roche' | Leave a Comment »
