Founder’s Updates

Why This PR Company Rocks

Kristen Tully, leader of MMC for a Cause, with our favorite: tie-dye cupcakes

Once in a while, an email slips into our info@shesthefirst.org account and it creates an impact on She’s the First like never before. Last March, when Kristen Tully, who runs the “MMC for a Cause” team at Marina Maher Communications, reached out to us, to ask if we were interested in being their partner, our hearts jumped: YES!

For 2012, MMC set a company-wide goal that they wanted to sponsor 12 girls’ educations with us. This past week, Christen Brandt, Director of International Operations, and I guest spoke at their all-staff meeting to reveal the results:

They did not sponsor 12 girls.

They sponsored 14!!!!

How did they do it? Under Kristen’s leadership, the staff applied the same creativity that they pour into their award-winning campaigns for clients into fundraisers, like a bake-off, yoga class, raffles, and a denim day (jeans are not normally in the dress code–but one day last summer, if staffers donated, they could wear them!).

A look back at the yoga, jeans, and baking fundraisers MMC held

We hope more companies realize the power they have to make a difference through fun fundraisers that not only make a huge impact on girls’ lives by funding their education, but also give the staff an unforgettable opportunity to bond.

Is your company interested in creating a cause partnership with She’s the First? Email me! tammy@shesthefirst.org

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Happy 3rd Birthday, She’s the First!

Remember this website? It’s what She’s the First looked like when we launched three years ago today, on November 1, 2009…I remember exactly the moment when Rachael Datello published the original video on YouTube and when Kate Lord pushed the website live! Christen Brandt and I never dreamed that She’s the First would turn into all this.

Today, we’ve sponsored 265 girls across 8 countries (and that number is about to drastically increase…the Tie-Dye Cupcake Bake-Off is right around the corner! You can still sign up a team, by the way, to help us meet our goal of 200 teams across all 50 states!) We’ve also sprouted 40 campus chapters across the U.S. (they most recently gathered in NYC this October for an epic leadership summit during the UN’s Day of the Girl!)

How can you help us celebrate? So many ways!! Our favorite at the moment is buying yourself a gift, one of our cupcake t-shirts for the upcoming campaign. You’ll be a walking billboard for She’s the First’s creativity and impact! You can order here and 100% of the profits directly sponsors girls’ education, helping us reach our $50,000 campaign goal.

If you’re in NYC, we modified our party plans due to Hurricane Sandy (we wish all of those affected a speedy recovery) … but the celebration will go on, impromptu in midtown Manhattan! If you’d like to join, tweet @tammytibbetts and/or @cjbrandt and we’ll keep you posted on our location.

Leave a 3rd birthday wish for She’s the First in the Comments…and thank you for being part of this journey with us and hundreds of amazing and inspiring girls across the globe. We’re only just beginning! :)

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Vote (Once!) in Next 2 Weeks for STF to Win $2,500!

You know how we always say that someone can contribute to She’s the First–even if you don’t have a penny to donate, or no more than 30 seconds of free time to give? These type of people make the perfect army to call upon when we need votes to win important grants for our projects!

Our latest opportunity is to win $2,500 from GOOD Makers, via the new Empower Women and Girls Globally grant.

Vote here!

If you have a Facebook account, it’s even faster to register your vote. You can only vote once, so none of that annoying pressure to come back every day.

However, if you want to earn extra credit, send a tweet or share on Facebook to encourage your friends to vote too, or leave a comment on our entry page to tell GOOD how awesome our She’s the First*{Campus} program is!

The winner will be announced on or just before November 9th–the week after our 3rd birthday. $2,500 would be an awesome gift!

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We’re Looking for Fall Interns!

I’m not ready to let the fabulous She’s the First Summer interns go! But alas, it’s time to start looking for the superstar interns to fill their shoes come September…could it be YOU? Take a look at the descriptions below, and submit your information to us by August 15th!

3 Positions:

  • 2 Operations Interns (General Support)

  • 1 Campaign Intern (specialization in social media and/or graphic design preferred; you will be working specifically on the Tie-Dye Cupcake Bake-Off, our largest grassroots campaign which has taken to epic proportions this year with Seventeen and Simon & Shuster’s support)

Our interns will serve as primary aides to the Founder/President and also support the volunteer teams & committees within the organization. This is a proactive internship where your work and ideas have a direct, visible impact.

ESSENTIAL QUALITIES

  • Creativity: You enjoy participating in brainstorming sessions (and take great notes!)
  • Energy: It radiates from you and shines through everywhere, in blog posts, on video, in social media updates, emails, etc.
  • Organization: You maintain up-to-date records & schedules in Google Docs (Yep, that spells CEO – you know how to take charge!)

This also means you:

  • Have a smart & spunky personality. Professional and personable.
  • Focus on goals & tasks at hand while also able to think big, long-term, & multitask.
  • Excellent MS Office, e-mail, and social media skills — Google Docs WHIZ.
  • Entrepreneurial spirit. You have the discipline and the drive to thrive in a start-up environment. No task is too small for you, no challenge too intimidating.
  • Strong follow-up. You keep projects on track with effective to-do lists & deadlines.
  • You work well both independently and as part of a team.
  • Social media evangelist: You believe in the power of networks, online & offline, to turn simple, small ideas into big, groundbreaking movements & shape educational models that will have a life impact on someone.

Responsibilities:

You will be helping the President with the “front end” of She’s the First. Your special focus will be on all projects and campaigns related to the STF*{Campus} Chapters & the high school outreach programs of She’s the First, which in the fall include, but are not limited to, the XX Summit (an “un-conference” for teenage girls, October 11) and the Tie-Dye Cupcake Bake-Off.

Our goal is to provide US-based student groups with even stronger resources to maximize their fundraising power for girls’ sponsorships, to support their storytelling & communication with sponsored girls, and to help them develop the skills to achieve their own personal firsts, too. You’ll work closely with our Committee members and Campus Coordinators on the STF Leadership Team as well.

Duties include:

  • Managing media partner relationships
  • Creating effective educational materials for campus chapters & high school enrichment programs in the U.S. (graphic design skills a plus here!)
  • Blogging & social media support
  • Stepping in to support the community of students & Millennials hosting independent fundraisers for STF when necessary
  • Helping author guidebooks & templates for campus chapters to download
  • Liaising with college media partners
  • Increasing engagement with the evolving Penpal Program of She’s the First
  • Being an excellent brand ambassador
  • Event planning assistance

Your Strengths:

- Writing, Event Planning, Team Leadership, Social Networking & Web

Relevant Majors:

Communications, Journalism, Public Relations

REQUIREMENTS

Time: We’ll need you for 15-20 hours a week, at least three days a week.

Location: 116 W 23rd St.

Education:

Applicants are preferred to have a minimum of two years of college experience.

Compensation:

This is an unpaid internship (we’ll work with your college & university to make sure you receive college credit) with a $250 stipend. Perks of the job include: Free entry to events that we host and the chance to represent She’s the First at exclusive events or conferences we are invited to, and to sit in on meetings with our awesome partners, volunteers, and donors. Opportunity to strengthen your social media skill sets and leadership qualities. Free lunch and coffee from time to time!

APPLY

To apply for either of the positions below, please send a resume and short cover letter OR video message to the She’s the First inbox, info@shesthefirst.org, by August 15th. Of all the amazing opportunities and non-profits out there, why do you want to work with She’s the First?

 

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League of Extraordinary Women: Let’s Take Action!

Editor-in-chief Bob Safian wrote a hand-written note! Thank you, @RSafian.

We have some news that will rock your Twitterverse this morning…She’s the First was named to Fast Company‘s League of Extraordinary Women! I am sure you realize that what She’s the First is today is more than I ever initially dreamed it would or could be…and that’s because of YOU, our donors and key players on our volunteer team. Among them, Christen Brandt, Director of International Operations; Cynthia Hellen, co-founder of our GIRLS WHO ROCK fundraiser; our first-ever Chairwoman Karen Karpowich and Board Directors; the founders and directors of our partner schools (my true heroes)…and countless others.

This high-profile recognition of She’s the First pushes me, our first full-time employee as of this May, to work even harder to be worthy of keeping company with Hilary Clinton, Oprah, and First Lady Michelle Obama…and especially the woman who created the Girl Effect, Maria Eitel of Nike, seen on the cover of Fast Company. (Read the bottom of this post to see why this brings us full circle!).

Our listing among Fast Company‘s “Heroic Projects” proves a bunch of ordinary people, including myself, can join forces and together make an impact that is truly extraordinary. Now let’s show what more our Millennial social media muscles can do!

  • Tweet: We can make this issue dedicated to women leaders and girls’ global welfare the best-selling, most-shared story package of the YEAR. Fast Company and editor Bob Safian have asked us to tweet with hashtag #ImWithTheLeague. You, yes YOU, are with the League if you support She’s the First! So get tweeting, because this is what we do best!

 

The @AAHUganda girls in print!

  • Take Action: You will notice that the photo on page 87 of Fast Company is of girls from our partner school in Uganda, the Arlington Academy of Hope. I ask that you contribute to a summer fundraising campaign to sponsor girls at AAH, right here on the From NYC to AAH page started by our teammate Carla Blumenthal. She and her roommates, Taylor and Allison, are taking a self-funded trip to the school on July 20 and want to sponsor 20 girls along the way!

 

I’m enthralled looking ahead to the future of She’s the First! But I couldn’t help but look back to the past: I dug up the very first time I ever put She’s the First in writing, to Christen Brandt in a Facebook message, dated May 13, 2009, when I was 23-years-old. Christen, thank you for not being overwhelmed. :)

At the MCF Academy we’re building in Liberia, I want to launch a program that teaches everything you described should be stressed. I had the idea of creating a campaign – so it could be applied globally, like the Girl Effect (thegirleffect.org) – called She’s the First. Fitting to launch in Liberia, since it’s the nation of Africa’s first female president. I outlined the mission of it below, if you’re interested in learning more…now I’m just figuring out how to create a video PSA that could virally get the awareness out there…I want to put a dream team of young people (like you!) together to create this…

..oh my gosh, just got an idea!! I’m going to flesh it out then can we talk soon? i would love to include you in this…and other NYWICI girls I’ve met recently who speak to the same goals/beliefs. Where are you living now? p.s. I’ve never been to DC and would love to visit you there this summer on a weekend!

ok, here’s the She’s the First thoughts (I bought shesthefirst.org too!) hope this isn’t too overwhelming!

Mission:

Empower girls from third world and underserved communities to break cultural and economic barriers. Give them the skills, awareness, and education to realize a dream, even if it has never been done before in their family or world history. Inspire girls to give back to younger “sisters,” so that as the first to achieve something, they also are not the last.

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Plan It Forward!


We have a MAJOR announcement: Merck is donating $25,000 to She’s the First as part of its Plan It Forward campaign launching on HerCampus.com! By exploring the Plan It Forward Course Creator and visiting the Pay It Forward section, you can learn about the donation and help us make a positive impact on the lives of girls worldwide, while working toward mapping out your own goals.

Why the Plan It Forward partnership is so fantastic:

  • She’s the First is always thinking about the future, so it’s a natural fit! We inspire young adult women (and we think the guys are listening, too!) to strive for what they can be the first to do. With an education, however, it’s possible to break the barriers that stand between us and our visionary goals.
  • Dreams can only go so far–you need to take action to make them a reality! Merck commissioned a survey and found that among 700 women between 18-25 one-third admitted they didn’t know where to start when it comes to putting a plan in place for their future. We love that this campaign helps you break your personal goals down into actionable steps. (I carry a planner with my daily and weekly to-do list around constantly, but haven’t formally jotted down a long-term plan, so I’m excited to test this out myself!) HerCampus.com will enable you to outline your steps and set personal deadlines online, and then you can download the roadmap, print, and post it somewhere you’ll see every day.
  • To spread the message even further, check out which celebrity is serving as a “Plan-Bassador” campaign spokesperson! Hint: She was the child star of The Cosby Show and is now headed to Broadway — that definitely required a plan to achieve.
  • Finally, She’s the First is planning it forward right along with you! This year, our ambitious goal is to raise $157,000 for girls’ sponsorships in the developing world. We do this by working side-by-side with students in the U.S., who rise as strong, confident leaders through our campus network, our grassroots event campaigns (like those famous cupcake bake sales and poetry nights), and we’re now even beginning to pilot after-school activities with high schools in the underserved areas near our campus chapters. Together, we are creatively improving the communities around us and the world at large. Tweet us at @shesthefirst or comment below if you find this helpful, and remember we’re here to support you!

 

Thank you Merck for paying it forward while planning it forward!

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Thank You, Her Campus!

When Windsor Hanger, Her Campus Co-Founder/Publisher/President, asked me in February if She’s the First would like to be their charitable partner in the One Million Collegiettes campaign, you can imagine I said, oh my goodness, YES!!! In February, Her Campus set out to reach a record-setting traffic goal of one million visits to their ultimate online home for college women, and they did it!! (They actually had 1.2 million visits!) As a result, She’s the First will receive ONE MILLION ad impressions on hercampus.com later this month! That’s worth more than $20,000.

Stephanie Kaplan, Her Campus Co-Founder/CEO/ Editor-in-Chief officially announced the good news here! Please join me in sending a big virtual hug and thank you to the more than 200 Her Campus chapters that tweeted and Facebooked their hearts out to reach this goal!

Her Campus has been a dream partner for us (you may remember that sweet tie-dye cupcake t-shirt design contest last fall, which Annie Wang, Co-Founder/CTO/Creative Director judged!) Many of our chapters, like She’s the First*{Hofstra}, got off the ground with the support of their local Her Campus branch. Founded just a few months before She’s the First in 2009, Her Campus has always felt like a slightly older, cool big sister to She’s the First–always looking out for us! (A bit of a tangent, but tonight I attended the “office warming” party of Pencils of Promise and HOLSTEE, two organizations I deeply admire, on 28th Street in NYC, which gave me an idea. Her Campus…if you ever move from Boston to NYC, can we be office roommates?)

Above all, it is so meaningful to watch how Her Campus readers and writers integrate what it means to be a “first” into their storytelling and spirit on campus. Website banner ads are an amazing gift, but what each of you are truly and individually advertising — the importance of paying it forward to girls globally as you pursue your own education and purpose-driven career –is priceless. THANK YOU!

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Add the New @shesthefirst Twitter Background!

The She’s the First Twitter page is rocking this new background, designed by our Art Director Genevieve Tabios! Want to wear it on yours too? Download here and upload to your profile!

CLICK HERE to download the full size!


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Make a Resolution to Help Sponsor a Girl in 2012!

Make it one of your New Year’s Resolutions to sponsor a girl’s education … you were born with certain opportunities in life that she was not. But you share the same aspiration: to be a first.

HOW YOU CAN HELP IN 2012:

10…donate your birthday! Sloane Berrent raised $5,000 with her 32nd (Sweet Sixteen x 12!) Other have raised $200-$300, which is enough to sponsor a girl in countries like Nepal!

9…buy a bracelet or order cookies to support girls’ sponsorships! (Watch out for a fun new necklace debuting this month, too!)

8…plan to attend the GIRLS WHO ROCK benefit concert, May 18th!

7…submit a poem to the upcoming She’s the First Poetry Anthology, proceeds of which will sponsor a girl (more info coming this month on shesthefirst.org!)

6…reach out to your company, for in-kind donations, event sponsorship, auction donations, or to ask if they’ll match your contribution to She’s the First.
Email us if you have ideas!

5…spread the word. “Like” us on Facebook and share our posts. Follow us on Twitter and retweet your favorite news!

4…help us find: volunteer web developers & designers, a pro bono printer. These services are in high demand!

3…have a tie-dye cupcake bake sale. The national campaign returns in November!

2…join a She’s the First Committee (Press, Fundraising & Development, Technology in Education) in NYC. Email info@shesthefirst.org to learn more!

1…YOU decide! She’s the First is a platform of creativity…the possibilities for paying it forward are endless.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Leave a comment to tell us which of these resolutions you’ll make!

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What Motivates & Inspires You? These YouTube Videos Will!

Do you ever stay up realllly late, wake up at the crack of dawn, add tons of responsibility onto your shoulders that sometimes weighs you down…but sometimes gives you wings? It’s the lifestyle that I’ve come to know very well this past year. I see the same dedication from my She’s the First, She’s the First*{Campus}, & GIRLS WHO ROCK teammates whenever we gear up for big fundraisers & campaigns. It worked: We sponsored more than 150 girls in 2011!

Why do we work so hard? Well, every once in a while, we see stars twinkle on the social media frontier…aka meaningful YouTube videos created by girls themselves. We are reminded that She’s the First itself started as a YouTube video…and look at it now! I expect the same miraculous growth from these three:

Gabriella created the “It Only Takes a Girl” video for her college admissions application –and it went viral. I emailed her and invited her to guest blog for shesthefirst.org. Here’s what she wrote us:

I am just a girl interested in the health and education of girls and women everywhere. I always have been. But ever since I began applying to colleges (I am a senior in high school), I have really had to take a step back and ask myself a few important questions.

Who am I? What do I want? What am I going to do with my life?

Recently, I realized that what I truly want is for every girl and woman on this planet to have opportunity–the opportunity for good health, a good education, a good job, and a good life.

One scholarship application in particular really challenged me. The instructions were simple: Do something. Something to show us who you are and what you care about. So I made this video.

The movie-making process, from writing the script to uploading the final version onto my website (itonlytakesagirl.org), took me just over a month. I made what felt like a billion cards with the help of my sister Sierra (15) out of poster board and Sharpie. My other sister, Celeste (14), helped me a lot with the filming, and my mom, Jessica, assisted me with setting up and running the website. Almost 50 girls and women, most of which are students, parents, and even a grandparent of my high school, are featured in my video.

I posted the link to my movie on Facebook so my friends and family could see it. But a few people shared it, and their friends shared it, and theirs, and so on, and after only a week, I had gotten over 100,000 views on YouTube! It has been truly humbling and inspiring to see how far and fast it has spread. The internet is truly a powerful thing. But I am just so grateful that my message–and the message of every girl around the globe–is getting out there.

Juie is a 13-year-old in London who found us on Twitter! She made this video:

@shesthefirst Aw Your Welcome I Love She’s the First and when I heard what it was about, I Instantly loved it. Thank You xo

And then there are videos from girls like Grace, a student we sponsor in Tanzania, via AfricAid. Grace emailed us two weeks ago and asked:

i would like to have you views about my digital story. Also i would like to know arethere any other girls in USA who have the same ideas like mine? and if theyare there what are they doing to make sure that they are succeed?

So there you have it. A girl from Lousiana, London, Tanzania. Each so unique, yet their dreams so universal. They live extremely far away from each other, yet share common ground on YouTube.

On the days when we’re navigating through our busy work & volunteer lives, videos like these really do glimmer like stars, and we know we’re going down the right path–for girls’ education.

What do you think after watching these videos? Team She’s the First & I hope you will join us to double the number of girls we can sponsor together in 2012!

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She’s the First…Seen in a College Newspaper Near You!

You may remember hearing the good news a couple months ago — She’s the First won the Campus Media Group PSA contest! This means that ads (designed by our talented Art Director Genevieve Tabios of Syracuse University), which encourage college students to get involved and start She’s the First*{Campus} chapters, will be printed for FREE in campus newspapers across the country!

Campus Media Group informed us today that so far, 26 separate college newspapers ran our ads, at a total value of $12, 229.21!  Below you can take a glance at what it looks like in Unviersity of Alabama Birmingham’s Kaleidoscope.

The ads have also appeared in Ohio State’s Lantern, , Rutgers’ Daily Targum, and University of California – Santa Barbara’s Daily Nexus, among many others!

Interested in starting a campus chapter, or encouraging your alma mater to do so? Apply here!

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She’s the First Success Story Premieres on NBC!

This commercial, which aired during the Notre Dame football game on NBC yesterday, is one of the most powerful two minutes I’ve ever watched:

You’ll recognize Lindsay Brown, of course! She’s the creator of the first tie-dye cupcake bake sale for She’s the First, which sponsored the three girls in Nepal whom she visited on this trip–when she created the first girls’ soccer team at Kopila Valley School.

Lindsay’s cupcake sale exactly one year ago inspired the Tie-Dye Cupcake Bake-Off this past November 1-8, for which 100 teams signed up! The grand fundraising total is still being tallied, but I can tell you this: It’s no chump change. We’ll announce later this week!

So, what do you fight for? She’s the First is proud to fight for girls’ right to an education and their opportunity to break barriers and be a “first”…with all of you, I feel like we’ve created quite an all-star team to fight in the most creative, productive, and peace-building way possible.

Thank you, Maggie Doyne, for working so tirelessly on a school and building a community of deserving children for us to support. Thanks to Maddie Fox, the NCAA-winning womens’ soccer team at ND, and She’s the First*{Notre Dame} for helping to make this small idea so huge, and thank you, Notre Dame, for bringing millions of hearts to Surket, Nepal. You never know where it will lead…hopefully to many more sponsorships, and in turn, girls who are the first to graduate!

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What’s Next for the Tie-Dye Cupcake Bakers!

I can trace the idea for the Tie-Dye Cupcake Bake-Off back to April 11th, 2011, when I had the chance to meet one of my Twitter role models, @amanda, for coffee at Starbucks. Amanda Rose is the founder of the biggest social media fundraiser, Twestival, and in one conversation she got me thinking about scale, something She’s the First had yet to truly achieve. We hadn’t broken ground on a big national campaign yet.

Exactly a year ago, Lindsay Brown, Maddie Fox, and friends had a tie-dye cupcake bake sale in their University of  Notre Dame dorms that raised $900 to sponsor three girls at the Kopila Valley Children’s School in Nepal. The blog coverage on shesthefirst.org inspired copy cats, and I noticed several other tie-dye cupcake sales pop up at random times to fundraise for girls’ sponsorships. What if, I started to dream aloud with Amanda, we got student bakers across the US to sign up to host tie-dye cupcake bake sales during the same week? She said, yes, do it!! And we did. Cupcake teams, YOU did.

All that's left of the Tie-Dye Cupcakes...

100 teams signed up, across 32 states, plus Australia and DC, and your checks are now on their way to She’s the First — every penny goes to sponsor girls inthese schools. By the end of this week, we’ll be able to announce a grand fundraising total, and in December, you’ll meet the sponsored girls on shesthefirst.org!

I’m a little sad to see our first-ever Tie-Dye Cupcake Week end, but I know we’ll be back even bigger next year! More importantly, I know this is just the beginning of our journey together. She’s the First made so many new friends — and we haven’t even met the girls we sponsored yet. (That will  happen in December!) Together, we proved cupcakes can really change the world, and every single person who purchased a cupcake now understands why girls’ education equality worldwide is worth standing up for.

Popcorn Factory prizes for the Cupcake Award winners!

In the meantime, we’re going to celebrate your success with daily Cupcake Awards, from November 9th-15th! The winners will be announced on Facebook and receive these prizes pictured from The Popcorn Factory. You can have a little celebratory party with your team!

Check out the photos that the Tie-Dye Cupcake Teams have been uploading to Flickr below!

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Happy 2nd Birthday, She’s the First!

Two years ago today, we pulled the trigger on shesthefirst.org and published this PSA video with JoJo, asking our peers to pull together with their networks to sponsor a girl’s education. Small contributions could add up to a BIG, life transforming impact. 140+ girls later, 4,000 Twitter and Facebook friends, look how far we’ve come! I’m personally so excited to celebrate offline with our friends in NYC tomorrow at Molly’s Cupcakes, but for now, the pulse of the party is beating on Twitter!

2012 was a big year — we sponsored 111 girls across eight countries, our campus chapter network grew (17 and counting!), we had educational events, innovative online campaigns (with poetry & cupcakes!), and a rockin’ concert too! 2012 is an even BIGGER year — and we know that we can only achieve our goals (of sponsoring 314 girls, double this year) with your help. But you know what they say…third time’s a charm!

Look for a Storify every day during the Tie-Dye Cupcake Bake-Off, which fittingly started today and continues through November 8th — sponsoring girls’ education, one tie-dye cupcake at a time!

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A New Way to Think About Dragonflies!

Highly recommend if you're exploring the value of social media for your cause.

While cooped upside waiting for Hurricane Irene to pass, I finished reading The Dragonfly Effect, a book that compiles the best case studies and strategies to prove what I already strongly believe: social media can drive social change. This will be the theme of a workshop I lead for the Young Women’s Program at three conferences I’m speaking at this Fall: the Texas Conference for Women, Massachusetts Conference for Women, and the Pennsylvania Conference for Women. So thanks to authors Jennifer Aaker & Andy Smith for the great ammo!

I was lucky to run into @AlexandraKirsch, a social media manager at @ruderfinn, the book’s publisher, at an Internet Week New York event. She correctly assessed I’d be a Dragonfly disciple, and I sure am!

The husband-and-wife author duo use the dragonfly as a metaphor, since it’s the only insect able to move in any direction when its four wings are working in concert. Each wing of the dragonfly symbolizes one of their criteria for making a social impact using social media: Focus + Grab Attention + Engage + Take Action. The final takeaway is that “small actions” — a Tweet, Facebook post, email messages — can “create big change” when part of a cohesive moment.

Like any effective book, the real value is in the case studies, and this one is full of them…if there is ever a second edition, my dream is that She’s the First can be one of them! But in this one, you’ll see references to charity : water, TOMS, Alex’s Lemonade Stand, the Obama presidential campaign, and lesser known efforts like Take a Bite Out of IHOP’s Animal Cruelty and http://helpsameer.org.

My favorite page is this one — a great reminder to She’s the First that while statistics might numb people, stories can activate them if told this way:

Read any great books during the Hurricane watch on the East Coast? Tell us about it!

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The Sequel to She’s the First Poetry Month

The campers show off their anthology (created with Azure in 3 weeks!) at their big finale at Cherry Lane Theatre!

There are many reasons I love Twitter. For the playful moments, like waging war for free ice cream from @BenJerrysTruck, which happened in my day job. There are the soulful moments, when a new follower in NYC becomes an offline friend, perhaps even a team member (@Marissa_Calhoun, @CarlaBlumenthal, @sjvandi on our team all found us that way), or a co-founder (the story of how GIRLS WHO ROCK leader @CynthiaHellen and I met).

But one Twitter success that will forever go down in history is when @shesthefirst tweeted our need for a poet last March, someone to help us teach a workshop connecting girls’ worldwide for this Poetry Month campaign idea we had. Non-profit @girlswritenow helped us out with a RT, and that’s how we found @azureantoinette. Azure’s She’s the First poetry workshop at the Young Women’s Leadership School in Brooklyn was so powerful (read about it!) that the school invited  her back for summer camp!

Cover of the Young Women's Leadership Schools students' summer poetry anthology

Today on the final day of camp, girls recited their poems, danced their hearts out, and listened to a poem Azure had written them, straight from the heart. Watch below!

As She’s the First continues to grow, we hope and dream that our Twitter-holism will foster a global classroom, a cause-minded creative community. While sponsoring girls in the amazing directory of She’s the First partner programs, we can never underestimate the impact we have on the classrooms in our own communities too. Thank you to the Young Women’s Leadership Schools, especially Polly Lagana and Tara Goulet, and most of all Azure for believing in She’s the First and making something so big out of one small idea!

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White House Invites She’s the First to Web Chat — on Tuesday!

She’s the First received an honorable invite from the State Department to participate in a global web chat this Tuesday — will you join us?

The conversation is inspired by First Lady Michelle Obama’s trip to South Africa, where she gave the keynote at the US-sponsored Young African Women Leaders Forum. The goal of this web chat is to connect youth leaders in Africa & the US. Together, we can meet the world’s shared challenges — HIV/AIDS, education, and violence against women, to name a few.

To follow the First Lady’s trip, read the White House’s blog. Below, find the web chat details, and a video of her keynote address…we’ll be in the discussion, tweeting as it happens (use hash tag #YoungAfrica) — hope you can be there, too!

EVENT DETAILS
First Lady’s Young African Women Leaders Forum:
Global discussion with Tina Tchen and Jocelyn Frye

Tuesday, June 28 at 11:00 EST
Video webchat: https://statedept.connectsolutions.com/youngafrica
Audio-only: https://statedept.connectsolutions.com/audioonly

RSVP on our Facebook page!

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Are You a Student Who Likes Cupcakes? Sign up Here!

The She’s the First team is diving into our next big audacious project to sponsor girls — and it’s going to be so sweet, literally! We’ll begin shaping a MASSIVE fall campaign for colleges and high schools nationwide: a week-long tie-dye cupcake bake-off!

The idea is that students nationwide will bake the signature She’s the First tie-dye cupcakes, and sell them in dorms, student centers, and cafeterias to fundraise for sponsorships. There will be some friendly competition — prizes for the highest grossing and most creative high school and college bake sales — and a tremendous global impact!! This campaign is all about scaling the amazing events our campus chapters have done already (because who doesn’t love a cupcake?)

If you are a student and want to get involved this summer in brainstorming and helping recruit schools to participate, sign up here!

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Spread the Word — Set Up a She’s the First Info Table!

Tammy & Sanam at the She's the First info table at the library!

This weekend, the South Brunswick Public Library (hometown of She’s the First founder Tammy) invited us to have a table at the teen volunteer fair! Special thanks to Nora, the Girl Scout who hosted the event to earn her Gold Award, and YA library Saleena Davidson; and to She’s the First volunteer Sanam Ghanchi for sitting with Tammy for 3 hours at the table!

Tabling for She’s the First is a great way to raise awareness, if you’re given the opportunity to do in your school or at community events.

We got a graduation-themed table cloth, spread out She’s the First postcards, collect email addresses in a notebook, sprinkled the table with candy, and displayed our favorite books that people could check out. You can find these books on our online bookshelf here.

What are your favorite ways to decorate an info table? Give us some tips for next time!

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She’s the First Poetry Month Workshop in Brooklyn

It’s difficult to choose one word to sum up the She’s the First Poetry Workshop hosted by Azure Antoinette at the Young Women’s Leadership School in Brooklyn today. Awe-inspiring? AMAZING? Authentic? Well, take a look at the stream of tweets below, the Flickr photos by Kaitlin Davis, or a video of Azure’s performance for the girls on YouTube, and you can tell us!

THIS is what enthusiasm in the classroom looks like!

Truth is, there aren’t words to describe what we felt connecting with 13-and 14-year-old girls in Brooklyn today, meeting them in a round of soft-spoken introductions, only to watch Azure work her magic and have them all jumping out of their seats with hands raised to recite their poetry before the room — which takes a lot of guts when you’re a teen!

Our goal was to connect the girls to the concept of “If the world was your classroom…” — to tell them about our mission, and the girls we sponsor in the developing world, so they feel part of a global community. We started a cherished relationship with the Young Women’s Leadership Network, where girls will contribute to a She’s the First poetry anthology that will support the cause and build cross-cultural communication…but more to come on that later!

In the meantime, stay tuned to Aspire for the last leg of the campaign later this week — the ecards that will fundraise for a girl’s sponsorship in Sudan! And don’t forget to contribute your own verse to the She’s the First Twitter poem, by answering the prompt here and tagging #stfpoem.

 

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