[EDEQUITY Girls Dialogue]Closing Statement by Annette Klinefelter

From: Annette.Klinefelter, Program.Director, (aak@lclarke.educ)
Date: Wed May 02 2001 - 18:10:12 EDT


Congratulations to all who participated in the Voices of Girls Dialogue
sponsored by WEEA. It was wonderful hear the diverse perspectives of
girls and women relative to gender, education, and culture. Of greatest
value was the honoring of girls and their experiences. Edwina, a young
woman working with our program was given an opportunity for their first
time to reflect on her educational experiences and what that means for
education in general. It has been truly wonderful to see how Edwina has
blossomed throughout the last two weeks. She has become so much more
confident in her abilities to articulate her thoughts.

For the girls from New Moon, it has been an opportunity to connect with
educators across the country and share the fruits of their empowerment.
What an extraordinary group of young women. We are so grateful for you
New Moon and all of the tremendous work you do on behalf of girls and
young women across the nation.

Let this not be the end of this powerful journey, but the beginning.
Let us all, as educators and supporters of girls, see this as an
opportunity to hear the "voices of girls" in our schools, communities,
and families. If we truly listen, as we have throughout this dialogue,
we will see that girls are incredibly resilient, thoughtful, and hopeful
about their futures. Let us nurture this hope and be concerned about
the self-doubt that plagues so many girls in middle school and
adolescence. By continually listening and encouraging, we can all do
our part to support our strong women of tomorrow!

For those of you interested in our leadership development programming or
our efforts to build strong alliances between girls and boys in our
community, please contact us at www.girlsinitiativenetwork.org.

Thanks again WEEA for providing this rich and meaningful experience for
girls.

Annette Klinefelter
Program Director
Girls Initiative Network
<aak@lclarke.edu>



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Apr 12 2002 - 15:16:45 EDT