1. Note from Rachel
   
2. Girlstart Events and News
   
3. Volunteer Spotlight
   
   

I love being able to start my monthly letter with a big congratulations – and one is definitely in order for our super volunteers from Applied Materials! The Women's Professional Development Network has done super work with us through the past year, especially on helping us with our Expanding Your Horizons program that brought several hundred middle school girls to UT to learn more about math, science and technology. We're proud to announce that Applied Materials, for its work with Girlstart, was part of the select group of companies and individuals that won the Governor's Volunteer Award for 2007. It's a huge honor, and it's a well-deserved one for all the fantastic volunteers who have helped us to inspire girls, and we just want to say thank you!

We also want to thank the Statesman's Omar Gallaga for his great work on the recent story you may have seen on Project IT Girl. Omar worked on the story for six months, following the IT girls from our first recruitment meetings to their successful Summer Academy programs a few weeks ago. And I can't rave enough about what great work they did – they had a week to create PSAs on issues important to them. Check out the IT Girl PSAs here, they're amazing! We can't wait to see what they do next year!

Girlstart Celebrates 10 Years of Success!
The 10th Anniversary celebration is coming up, and you can click here if you want to get tickets to the September 6th party, or if you want to buy a Luxury Vacation Raffle ticket. A single $100 ticket gets you a chance to win an all-inclusive, eight-day/seven night vacation, sailing the Caribbean in a 65-foot yacht with seven of your closest friends, and a professional crew and chef taking care of you. We’re only selling 1500 raffle tickets, and you need not be present to win when we do the drawing! If a dream vacation sounds good to you, and you want to help Girlstart, buying a raffle ticket’s a great way to do both at once!

Storage Room Makeover
Girlstart was in desperate need of a work space for our Summer Camp Volunteers, and we needed a more organized and user-friendly storage room. Freescale came to our rescue! A group of volunteers from Freescale spent the afternoon cleaning, organizing, and truly transforming the storage room into a Volunteer Haven. They created a space that our volunteers love, and our staff appreciates that they can now find what they need in storage. We are so grateful to Freescale for their hard work and willingness to get their hands dirty! Check out the before and after pictures on our Volunteer Spotlight!

2007 Sponsors

Lucky Stars
National Science Foundation   Texas Education Agency   Sooch Foundation

Super Stars
Intel   A Glimmer of Hope   Microsoft   The Dell Foundation   Topfer Family Foundation

Shining Stars
AMD   Applied Materials  &nbspCity of Austin  &nbspExxonMobil  &nbspSynopsys

Rising Stars
KDK-Harman Foundation  RGK Foundation  Cisco   Seawell Elam Foundation   
Silicon Laboratories   National Instruments

Shooting Stars
Texas Gas Service   Maxwell Locke & Ritter   Wells Fargo   BAE Systems
CREW Austin   Chaparral Women's Club   Compass Bank   SouthCentral Girls’ Collaborative

Girlstart gives girls the tools they need to be leaders of their generation. Help a girl change the world. Give to Girlstart now!