Monthly Archives: March 2013

We’re Making a Commitment at Clinton Global Initiative U!

From April 5-7, She’s the First will be attending Clinton Global Initiative U for the first time! To learn more about our Commitment as an organization, please visit our CGI U 2013 page. Below, allow me to introduce you to the She’s the First campus leaders joining Christen Brandt, our Director of International Operations, in St. Louis!

Meaghan O’Connor, University of Michigan

Meaghan will organize groups of students around the globe who will make and sell handmade jewelry—using beads made from recycled magazine paper—and will teach these groups about how jewelry can help raise money for educational scholarships. Her U.S.-based groups will create instructional videos, along with magazine bead making kits, to send to a She’s the First partner school—with the opportunity for these young women to create jewelry to finance their own education.

Becca Wertheim, University of North Carolina-Asheville

Becca has created GOAL Getters, an engaging Social Studies curriculum for elementary school students that integrates global education, leadership skills, and service work while teaching kids how to problem-solve and work toward resolving some of the biggest global issues. Students will learn about education around the world while working toward their essential service goal of fundraising to sponsor a girl’s education in a developing country for one year.

Elizabeth Rich, University of Michigan

Elizabeth Rich will launch the “Read-A-Thon for More Reading,” a partnership of She’s the First at the University of Michigan with the Girl Scouts in the Ann Arbor area. Each Girl Scout will log every hour of reading and ask friends, family, and teachers to give her pledges based on each hour they read. Proceeds will sponsor girls’ education with She’s the First.

Maisy Page, Nova Southeastern University

Maisy will manage a launch a campaign called “Run the World: 5ks Sending 5 Girls to School” with the goal of raising money to send girls to school in the developing world, while guiding teen girls in her own community to improve their own health and wellness as they learn global awareness. Maisy Page will be running five 5ks in 2013 to raise money to send 5 girls to school in 5 different countries.

Follow her Run the World Facebook page

We’ll also be with Lindsay Brown and Katie Kenney from She’s the First*{Notre Dame}, who are making a Commitment to Action with The SEGway Project, using soccer to empower adolescent girls in the developing world, some of whom She’s the First sponsors in Nepal. (You may recognize Lindsay as the creator of our tie-dye cupcake craze and winner of Seventeen‘s Pretty Amazing reader cover contest last year!)

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#AliciaDedicates a Song to @shesthefirst!

And here’s the tweet from Alicia Keys in December 2012 that we’ll never forget!

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From Duck, Duck, Goose to Dancing: Getting Fit with Selamta

This is how the students at Selamta get fit...how do you?

As runners across the country lace up for She’s the First Run the World campaign to sponsor 100 girls in 100 days, I started to get curious. How do girls at our partner schools fit in their daily exercise? Over the years, I’ve come to learn more about yoga classes and circus camp at the Kibera School for Girls and dancing at the Selamta Family Project, so I knew the girls’ answers would be creative!

Immediately after posing this question to Alix, Kibera School for Girls’ Postgraduate Fellow and Mia Brown, Selamta’s Volunteer Coordinator and Sponsorship Manager, I was thrilled to receive excited responses. Thus, this begins a two-part series on how girls in Ethiopia and Kenya fit in some fun and fitness.

Girls at Selamta practice their dance moves.

Dancing is one of the favorites for the students at Selamta, and a regular pastime for many Ethiopians. I remember during my trip to Ethiopia years ago, I came across a wedding party and was amazed by how beautiful the dancing was. It was like nothing I’d seen at my own family’s weddings, and as Mia says, “It’s fun to watch and embarrassing to try to imitate.” Though the dancing varies across the country, it is largely unified by the emphasis on shimmying shoulder movements and the upper body. Dancing in Ethiopia is rhythmic, expressive and distinctive. It’s truly incredible to watch, and I’d love to be able to see the girls at Selamta in action as they showcase their skills at Selamta Idol!

Even when it’s not designated playtime, students at Selamta remain active. They regularly lend a hand with chores around their constellation home and hand-wash their clothes each week (a workout in itself!) As they walk to and from school, the market and friends’ homes, the girls at Selamta often walk arm-in-arm.

From soccer to swimming and duck, duck goose to dancing, the girls at Selamta love to play. Whether they’re jumping rope or testing their balance at weekly circus and gymnastics lessons, these girls, as Mia reports, “bend, stretch and balance” their way to getting strong and healthy.

Like the girls at Selamta show us, exercise can be fun and it can help you learn a new skill, but more often than not, it’s best enjoyed with friends.

Walking home with friends after an afternoon of jump-roping.

Posted in Selamta Family Project | Tagged dancing, Ethiopia, exercise, games, girls' education, running, She's the First | Leave a comment

Letter from Mekdes, Selamta’s First University Student!

Mekdes is all smiles at Gondar University!

In December, we were thrilled to share with you the story of Mekdes, Selamta Family Project’s first
student to pursue higher education! Last week, Mekdes was kind enough to find time in her busy schedule to share with us her first experiences at Gondar University. Below is a letter she sent to Selamta. Leave a comment below to let Mekdes know that we’re all wishing her the best of success at university!

First of all I would like to thank you again for helping me be who I am today and join campus. Before I joined university people were telling me how much hard and challenging campus life could be. So I was very terrified. But what I found in reality is very different. Campus life is not that much difficult. I also realized that if I work hard in my studies I will get good grades.

The other important thing in campus life is having a good self esteem. Otherwise many things can get in our way and distract us from achieving our dream.

The other interesting thing in campus is the different trainings that we get besides the formal education. Among these trainings let me tell you about the training on leadership that I am participating in. This training basically gave us the different mechanisms on how we can acquire the skill of leadership. It gives especial emphasis for women. It enables us to build self confidence, express our ideas freely, participate in different leadership activities and help us to develop various good study techniques. I think leadership skill training is very important for women in Ethiopia. It helps us to own the confidence to be a leader in spite of the bad cultures in our society which undermines women.

Finally, I would like to pass my gratitude to my Selamta family and I really wish my younger brothers and sisters could study hard and join campus like me. Within the next few years, I hope to be successful in my studies and serve Selamta using the knowledge that I acquired.

I wish you a long healthy life! Let God be with Selam!

Posted in Selamta Family Project | Tagged college, Ethiopia, Higher Education, Mekdes, university | Leave a comment

Malala Returns to School!

Malala, a brave advocate for girls' education, returns to school. Image via Business Insider

The world’s youngest Nobel Peace Prize nominee. TIME’s Person of the Year candidate. Education activist. Writer. Survivor.

These are just a few of the titles Malala Yousafzai, a 15-year-old girl from Pakistan, has earned. But beyond her titles and international accolades, Malala is a force for change and embodies fight for girls’ education.

On October 9, 2012, Malala was shot by Taliban gunmen on her way to school (full story here). She was attacked doing exactly what she had dedicated her life to – ensuring that girls worldwide have equal access to education. After enduring life-threatening injuries less than six months ago, Malala is returning to school once more!

Calling her return to the classroom “the most important day of her life,” Malala will renew her studies in the U.K. In a statement she prepared with her family, Malala said, “I am excited that today I have achieved my dream of going back to school. I want all girls in the world to have this basic opportunity.”

Her strength, determination and impassioned demands captured headlines around the world. However, before she was the center of international media attention, she was authoring her own headlines. At the age of 11, Malala began blogging about her desire for all girls to be enriched by receiving an education and her dream of serving as a doctor. Though her blog was at first anonymous and shared through the BBC, she later revealed her identity and became a target of the Taliban.

However, the Taliban’s attempts to extinguish her voice only fueled her fire. Her attempted assassination has prompted international political response, calls for a “Malala and 32 Million Girls Day” to be celebrated on November 10 and amplified demands worldwide for gender equity in education.

As Malala returns to school, we celebrate her strength and voice, as well as the millions around the world who are committed to ensuring that all girls are empowered and encouraged to use theirs.

Posted in News and Studies | Tagged activist, girls' education, Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Peace Prize, Pakistan | Leave a comment

Want to Intern for She’s the First?

Spring 2013 Intern Kristin Sprague

If you’re searching for your summer internship and want a hands-on experience that directly impacts girls’ lives around the world, while teaching you the ropes of running a start-up, then you’re in the right place. We’re seeking superstar summer 2013 interns to join our team!

Take a look at the opportunities described below, and submit your most creative cover letter and resume to us by April 1st.

She’s the First interns work under the wings of and serve as primary aides to our full-time staff–the Founder/President and Director of International Operations–and also support our volunteer teams & committees.

ALL POSITIONS REQUIRE:

Availability 2-3 days a week
Work in-person from the NYC She’s the First office
Receive college credit

INTERNSHIP POSITIONS AVAILABLE:

International Operations Intern: Our ideal International Operations intern will have extensive research skills, top-notch writing abilities, and a strong knowledge and interest in international news and development. This person will be responsible for updating the website (WordPress-based), researching various development-related topics, and assisting with the penpal program.

Fall 2012 intern Kim Horner

Design/Creative Intern: Our dream design intern will be just like Kristin Sprague! During the spring semester, she’s creating graphics, flyers, and all sorts of marketing materials that strengthen our brand in the world and make our impact on girls’ lives visual.

Web Development Intern: Later this year, we’d like to relaunch our website to be more tablet and mobile-friendly, which includes improving our online donation platform and making our penpal program with the girls we sponsor even more tech efficient. We’re looking for a student who can teach us a thing or two about best practices in the user experience and jump into our site’s coding. Be a part of shesthefirst.org 3.0!

Marketing/Finance Intern: You will assist the President with presentations and outreach to corporate partners, maintaining a database of grants and assisting with applications, and helping her to manage donor relations by issuing tax receipts, thank you notes, etc. The ideal candidate will major in finance, business development, or marketing background and have prior experience working or volunteering at a non-profit organization.

Do-It-All Intern: Your special focus will be on projects and campaigns related to the She’s the First campus chapters & the high school outreach programs of She’s the First. The summer’s biggest projects are the 3rd Annual Tie-Dye Cupcake Campaign, a Leadership Summit for She’s the First Campus Chapter Presidents, the Summer Camp of the Young Women’s Leadership High School, and helping us prepare travel logistics for a 2-month tour of our East Africa partner schools.

APPLY

To apply for any of the positions above, please send a resume and short cover letter OR video message to the She’s the First inbox, info@shesthefirst.org, by April 1st. Of all the amazing internship opportunities out there, why do you want to work with She’s the First?

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Calling All Pretty Amazing Girls!

In September 2012, we saw a familiar face on the cover of Seventeen: Lindsay Brown, the She’s the First chapter president at the University of Notre Dame! She was selected for being a stellar student athlete for organized a tie-dye cupcake bake sale for She’s the First, which led her to visit the girls she sponsored in Nepal and then create a nonprofit to teach girls in developing countries how to play soccer and be confident on the field and in the classroom. To do all this, she had to quit the soccer team and forfeit her own academic scholarship. Pretty amazing.

It’s that time of year when Seventeen is once again on the search for its 2013 cover girl in the 3rd annual Pretty Amazing Reader Cover Contest. In this competition, Seventeen asks girls ages 15-22 who are talented, creative, and inspiring to share their story. The winner also gets a $10,000 scholarship!

Last year the spotlight was on empowering girls in the developing world. What other accomplishments can you share with Seventeen? How have you, or one of your friends, inspired others to be pretty amazing? Spread the word!

Submit your story to Seventeen in 1,000 words or less and upload two photos by April 30th, 2013. For more contest information and to enter click here. If you want us to put in a good word for you, just email our Founder/President Tammy Tibbetts, tammy@shesthefirst.org.

Posted in Press News, She's the First Intern Posts, She's the First*{Campus} | Tagged lindsay brown, PrettyAmazing, seventeen | Leave a comment

Monthly Archives: March 2013

We’re Making a Commitment at Clinton Global Initiative U!

#AliciaDedicates a Song to @shesthefirst!

From Duck, Duck, Goose to Dancing: Getting Fit with Selamta

Letter from Mekdes, Selamta’s First University Student!

Malala Returns to School!

Want to Intern for She’s the First?

Calling All Pretty Amazing Girls!

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