Dear Friends,Girls Face Paint

Happy Halloween! We’re loving the conversation happening around girls’ costumes this year. If you missed it, GLI alumna, Lilly, wrote on Rachel Simmons’ blog about the pressure on girls to repress their silly, goofy selves. She is giving up her cool card this October to be one of the monsters from Where the Wild Things Are. If you feel inspired by Lilly’s blog, then check out Shelby Knox’s open thread on the GLI blog, WOOSH! where she asks folks to suggest other great costumes for girls. We are asking any girl or family with a girl with a fun and creative costume to send us a photo. We will post photos of our GLI community on our Facebook fan page so we can all be inspired by one another.

Read below to get the real GLI low down. Our Real Parents, Real Daughters workshop in Boulder is sold out, but you can still click here if you want to be notified when the next workshop becomes available. We’ve got exciting updates about our new after-school program and summer camp. Scan to the bottom to meet Elaina Koros, our girl profile of the month. Elaina is starting a girls leadership group at her high school to change the lives of middle school girls.

Thank you for being a part of the GLI family and we hope to see you at a program soon!

All my best,

Simone Marean

Camp Update: Summer 2010!
We are two weeks away from opening registration! Planning for summer 2010 is underway. We’re adding a third session, and creating individualized programs for each grade level. Girls will have more options than ever for afternoon arts projects. Of course, we won't go changing the most important parts of GLI: Slip ‘N Slide, water fights, and sing offs.  Make sure that you are notified when registration becomes available.

Session One: June 26th – July 9th, 2010, for girls entering grade 6 & 7
Session Two: July 11th – 24th, 2010, for girls entering grades 8 & 9
Session Three: July 26th – August 8th, 2010, for girls entering Grades 10,11 & 12 & alumnae entering grades 10,11, & 12
THIRD YEAR CAMPERS… Coming soon!

Club Real Girl
We are launching our after school program, Club Real Girl, in January 2010. Club Real Girl is an unprecedented opportunity for girls in grade four and five. At Club Real Girl girls come together to create a socially safe community where they can play internationally recognized theatre games (Bop anyone?), practice emotional intelligence, learn concrete relationship skills, express themselves and have fun.

Learn more and register now.

Eleven Year Itch by Fiona Lowenstein, 10th gradeScantron Test
Two weeks ago, I made one of the biggest changes of my life. I left my school of eleven years and transferred to a different one after school had already started.

To be a successful student, we’re taught to follow the rules, to raise our hands, and to do all the homework. We’re also taught to stand up for ourselves, become passionate about an area of life we can later pursue as a career, and make creative choices. We’re taught to take PSATs, SATs, SATIIs, ACTs, APs and do as many as possible. We’re taught to value the college application process as the climax of our entire teenage life.

Keep reading Fiona's blog.

Girl Find of the Month'GenAustin' Logo
We were blown away by GenAustin’s video  for their upcoming conference. Even if you don’t live in Austin, this video makes you think about the importance of the girl in your life. If you DO live in Austin you are one lucky duck. Check out the amazing line-up they’ve put together for thier November 14th Girls Now! Conference, where girls in grades five through twelve will talk about Bullying, Body Image and Being a Girl.

Meet Elaina Koros, 10th grader: 
Sophomore It’s said that imitation is the highest form of compliment and that’s exactly how we felt when Elaina, a California sophomore, decided to start a girls leadership club for grammar school students as her Sophomore Summer Project.

At camp, Elaina talked about the high-pressure environment at her high school, where girls are expected to model all the “good girl” traits: good grades, athletic ability, participation in lots of extra-curricular activities, and popularity. When asked to think back to when those pressures began, she said it was all the way back in grammar school, when girl bullying also entered the picture. Elaina went to GLI for the first time in eighth grade and learned about emotional intelligence and how to cope with “good girl” expectations – but she wished someone had taught her those skills much earlier.

Enter the idea for her Leadership for Life Club. Armed with two years of GLI learning, Elaina decided to create a project to give younger girls the skills to “enter middle school prepared and confident.” She figured younger students would be better able to learn from girls only a little bit older and that high school girls could benefit from a little leadership training too. She set out to recruit 20 to 30 of her peers to be trained by our very own Simone Marean on the basics of the GLI curriculum, including conflict resolution, confidence, and living like a leader.

After the training is complete, the high school girls will start in January conducting regular workshops with grammar school students at area schools. Elaina is currently recruiting more members to be trained– she already has 70 fellow students who’ve expressed interest! – and raising funds to support the club. She’s already applied for funding from her student council, planned bake sales, and is applying for a $5000 award for young community organizer from Prudential.

Elaina also made her radio debut recently, appearing on her school’s radio show to talk about the goals of the Leadership for Life Club. You can take a listen – we might be a bit biased, but it’s just the plain truth: SHE ROCKED!

Leadership for Life has a Facebook page where you can keep up with the group’s progress – check it out here. If you’d like to support Elaina’s club or if you have contacts at a grammar school in California that might be interested in receiving training from the Leadership for Life Club, please contact us at GLI and we’ll put you in touch.

Keep checking this space for more updates on Elaina’s progress, as well as more profiles of GLI girls who are changing the world!

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