www.girlstart.org
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www.girlstart.org |
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| IN THIS ISSUE |
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| NOTE FROM RACHEL |
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This month Girlstart is celebrating the power within! Power is defined by Merriam-Webster as "the ability to act or affect change." Girlstart's power is defined in a single word: "volunteer." In April Girlstart celebrates the volunteers who have affected real change in the lives of girls. Recently, our volunteers' efforts made our first Expanding Your Horizons conference a resounding success. Close to 300 young ladies got to see, talk with, and work alongside more than 80 successful and professional women who volunteered their time to create a magical and moving experience for girls. What a powerful example of how women can impact the world of girls! High school girls who have been impacted by the efforts of Girlstart volunteers will be invited to attend the first meeting of our Alumnae Club this month. Along with rekindling old friendships and inspiring new dreams, this club will encourage and train our alumnae to become volunteers in the effort to make the world a better place for girls and give back some of the wisdom and inspiration that they gained from Girlstart! Volunteers will also be assisting us this month as we host our fourth annual e² summit. This event showcases the ingenuity of Girlstart students in an action-packed day of science, math, engineering and technology fun. Some of the challenges include building websites, programming robotic cars and protecting an egg when it is dropped. And as if all that volunteer power weren't enough, we are pleased this month to welcome new members to Girlstart's Board of Directors: Dr. Patricia Pickles, Superintendent of Pflugerville ISD, and Mary Wells, Director of New Schools with the Texas High School Project. Girlstart also welcomes Tommy Deavenport, Senior VP and Regional Manager for Square One Bank to our advisory board! If that all sounds like a lot of action for one month, take a deep breath because there's more work to be done! Girlstart is looking forward to more big adventures just around the corner - all powered by an unbroken chain of will and determination on the part of our volunteers. Don't miss your chance to power the girl movement by volunteering at Girlstart today! 
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| GIRLSTART EVENTS AND NEWS |
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Summer Camp is Filling Fast!The word is out that Girlstart Summer Camp 2006 is the coolest camp for girls in town! Summer camp themes for 2006 include Making the Video, Dream Spaces, You're the Boss, and Hermione's Adventures at Girlstart for girls entering the 4th through 8th grades in the fall! It's not too early to register - hurry before our camps sell out! Find out how your company can become a sponsor for Summer Camp or make a gift to the scholarship fund by contacting Milissa Tivnan at 916-4775. Girlstart Alumnae Club April 22, 2006 Join Girlstart at our first Alumnae Club party! The Girlstart Alumnae Club is for girls who are currently in high school and were in the Girlstart after school club or attended a Girlstart Summer Camp. We are getting together to catch up on old times as well as to form a club for alumnae to volunteer and share their experience with the community! We will be contacting our alumnae soon, but to make sure you get involved please contact Dita Niyogi at dita@girlstart.org. The Girlstart Alumnae Club is sponsored by the Sooch Foundation. e² summit April 29, 2006 The annual Girlstart e² (Educate and Empower) summit is an invitation-only tournament where girls from the Club Girlstart after-school clubs compete in a variety of engineering and technology challenges! The competition will be hosted by the Microsoft Technology Center and will wrap up the Club Girlstart programs. Good luck teams! The e² summit is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and Microsoft. |
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| VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT |
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Join us for the 4th annual e² summit! Volunteers are needed to help with set-up, monitoring rooms and teams, lunch, and clean-up. Help Girlstart make this a successful event! Special thanks to all of Girlstart's volunteers during National Volunteer Week - you make our programs happen! Expanding Your Horizons was a phenomenal success thanks to the hard work from American Association of University Women (AAUW) volunteers! Nearly 25 dedicated volunteers arrived, coffee in hand, at 7am to help over 250 girls check-in and get directed to their workshops. AAUW has been volunteering with Expanding Your Horizons for over 10 years, and Girlstart benefited greatly from their expertise. Thank you! |
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| A GIRL'S STORY |
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Hundreds of girls joined Girlstart at Expanding Your Horizons on March 25, 2006. In this annual event spotlighting science, math, and technology, girls learned about a variety of subjects from bones and brains to building bridges. Professional women presented hands-on activities featuring their careers.
Brandi is one of many girls who attended Expanding Your Horizons in the Designer Girl: Engineering track. Brandi had the following to say about her experience: "I loved Robogirlz! It was fun playing with the robots!" |
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| DONOR HIGHLIGHTS |
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Girlstart is grateful to the many companies who contributed to Expanding Your Horizons! Our sincerest thanks to Cisco, UPS, Applied Materials, Intel, Maxwell, Locke & Ritter, Silicon Labs, H-E-B, Texas Gas Service, the RGK Foundation, SigmaTel, Wells Fargo, and individual contributions from people like you! Girlstart is made possible by a grant through the National Science Foundation. Girlstart's after-school programs are funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation and Intel. The Girlstart Digital Detectives program is supported by the Texas Education Agency. Saturday camps are funded by AMD and the Sooch Foundation; and our Baty Elementary after school program is sponsored by AMD. The Girlstart Technology Center is underwritten by Janet Harman, Jeff and Gail Kodosky, Nav Sooch, KLE Foundation, Betsy Blair and Jim Van Winkle, AMD, Austin Community Foundation, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, and National Instruments. Girlstart's 2005 Summer Camps were made possible by generous grants from Dell, Seawell Elam Foundation, Applied Materials and the Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation. Scholarships for campers were made possible by the Silverton Foundation, Freescale, Wells Fargo, the Strake Foundation, the Chaparral Women's Club, employees of Motion Computing, the LCRA Employees' United Charities, and numerous individual donors. Underwriting for 2006 Summer Camps is provided by Dell and the Sooch Foundation. The Sooch Foundation is also generously sponsoring a research study on Girlstart alumnae. We are pleased to have support from Cisco, UPS, Applied Materials, Intel, Maxwell, Locke & Ritter, Silicon Labs, H-E-B, Texas Gas Service, the RGK Foundation, SigmaTel, Wells Fargo, and individual contributions in presenting Girlstart’s first Expanding Your Horizons event. Girlstart would also like to thank the Webber Family Foundation and ExxonMobil for their support. For their generous donation of goods and services, we would like to thank Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr, P.C., Fox 7, IBM and Cupidz Clozet. Girlstart gives girls the tools they need to be leaders of their generation. Help a girl change the world. Give to Girlstart now! |