Pathfinder Leadership Program for High School Girls https://grants.dudleytdoughertyfoundation.org/proposals-2013/pathfinder-leadership-program-for-high-school-girls https://grants.dudleytdoughertyfoundation.org/@@site-logo/sitelogo-75x75.png

Pathfinder Leadership Program for High School Girls

Additional Information
Used for	The new Pathfinder social innovation program will work with high school girls to give them a head start on closing our nation's leadership gap. It will be a year-long program which positions 10th -12th grade girls through a competitive selection process for success. Through monthly skill-building workshops, executive mentors, targeted summer internships, and community service, Pathfinder will fast track girls for leadership success.
Benefits	Strong girls make strong women, and as girls and women thrive, so does society. Pathfinder will fast track girls to do many things including learn independent living skills for a smooth transition to college, achieve high interview scores, gain experience and content for college application essays, and set clear goals toward a future career.
Proposal Description	I am pleased to provide you with information on GENaustin’s (the Girls Empowerment Network of Austin) new Pathfinder social innovation program for high school girls. Originally called The Ophelia Project, GENaustin was created in 1996 by 12 concerned mothers raising adolescent girls in Austin, Texas. Inspired by Reviving Ophelia, a book by Dr. Mary Pipher, these mothers met to address an increasing trend among middle school aged girls - a systematic decline and sometimes permanent loss of self-esteem. The outcome of which can be devastating: epidemic levels of anorexia/bulimia, self-mutilation, depression, low academic achievement, teen pregnancy, and drug abuse. The agency’s mission is to support and guide girls to make wise choices as they navigate the unique pressures of girlhood. GENaustin equips girls with the skills they need to confront the dangers of adolescence and forges healthy, supportive bonds among girls so they know they are never alone. The agency accomplishes this by surrounding girls with positive role models they can relate to who encourage, inspire, and guide. GENaustin is unique because it focuses on issues affecting adolescent girls, and because it addresses these issues through strengths-based programs. We believe that strong girls make strong women, and your support will enable us to educate, inspire, and mentor girls to navigate through the ups and downs of adolescence toward a healthy adulthood. The agency’s vision is that it will become a model organization in Austin and beyond for creative approaches that build girls’ critical thinking skills, self-efficacy, and confidence. Although only 17 years old, it has experienced significant growth - from its origins as a parent support group and fledgling Speaker Series to the launch of the first “girls’ club” at one school - to a fully operational agency run by staff with program presence in several central Texas school districts. With an infrastructure of nine full-time staff, four part-time staff, and approximately 230 volunteers, GENaustin implements five programs: the 180 Program (180) for girls who have entered the juvenile justice system for the first time or are at risk of entering the system, the weekly after-school clubGEN, the We Are Girls conference, the Girl Talk workshop series, and GirlConnect which focuses on technology-based learning. In 2012-13, GirlConnect served 788 girls, clubGEN served 640 primarily low-income girls in 29 central Texas elementary and middle schools, Girl Talk reached 2726 girls and 304 adults, We Are Girls had 1651 registrants at the most recent conference held on November 9th, and 180 served 257 girls. The new Pathfinder program will be innovative because it will work with high school girls to give them a head start on closing our nation's leadership gap. "Women became 50% of the college graduates in the United States in the early 1980s. Since then, women have slowly and steadily advanced, earning more and more of the college degrees, taking more of the entry-level jobs, and entering more fields previously dominated by men. Despite these gains, the percentage of women at the top of corporate America has barely budged over the past decade. A meager 21 of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women. Women hold only about 14% of executive officer positions, 17% of board seats, and constitute only 18% of our elected congressional officials. The gap is even worse for women of color, who hold just 4% of top corporate jobs, 3% of board seats, and 5% of congressional seats. While women continue to outpace men in educational achievement, we have ceased making real progress at the top of any industry. This means that when it comes to making the decisions that most affect our world, women’s voices are not heard equally." Sandberg, Sheryl (2013-03-11). Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (pp. 5-6). Pathfinder will be a year-long program which positions 10th -12th grade girls through a competitive selection process for success. Through monthly skill-building workshops, executive mentors, targeted summer internships, and community service, Pathfinder will fast track girls to:  develop entrepreneurship skills,  develop financial literacy skills,  market themselves,  learn independent living skills for a smooth transition to college,  achieve high interview scores,  speak publicly,  learn negotiation strategies,  gain experience and content for college application essays,  set clear goals toward a future career, and  have access to a network of CEO's and local leaders for letters of reference and future job search support. Participants will be selected through an application process which will include details about their performance in school, extra-curricular activities, goals for the future, and interests. Girls must demonstrate their desire to be in the program through a brief essay which will ask them to share what they hope to achieve. The essay section of the application will be weighted such that if a girl does not have high performance in school but indicates a strong desire to benefit from the program, her candidacy will still be considered. GENaustin will rely on a partnership with the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and volunteer executives and professionals to: 1. develop curriculum, 2. advise the process of launching the program and serve as mentors and possible internship placements for participants, 3. assist with monthly meetings and work directly with girls in groups, 4. serve as guest speakers who are specialists in key topics such as business, entrepreneurship, career, and college planning, and 5. host monthly meetings giving participants access to a professional environment. The meeting structure of the program will be:  Opening weekend retreat in September  7 monthly Saturday skill-building workshops (4 hours each)  4 notable community leader talks (two fall/two spring) – parents can also attend  4 targeted 1:1 executive mentor sessions  Optional community service hours through other GENaustin programs  Closing weekend retreat in May  Summer internship placement at a participating company The following metrics will measure the development phase of Pathfinder:  Metric 1: Creation of the program infrastructure including: curriculum, advisory committees (executives and teen girls), confirmed internship sites, application process, and marketing materials.  Metric 2: 25% of the class of 2014-2015 registered by May 30th, 2014.  Metric 3: Pilot 4-6 new workshops with high school girls to test curriculum and receive feedback. Once the program is implemented, measures of success will be outcomes for girls such as improved skills, experience, and access to leaders (short-term), and participant success at using the Pathfinder alumni community as a resource for attainment of first job after college (long-term). GENaustin needs $25,000 to seed the startup of Pathfinder which will fund a part-time position for a girl expert to develop curriculum, identify participating CEO's, build an advisory board, run a series of pilot workshops to test curriculum, develop an application process, and market the opportunity to the community. Additional funding will be needed to provide scholarships for low-income girls who cannot pay the $3000 enrollment fee (GENaustin hopes to scholarship up to 50% of program participants). When the program is up and running, it should be self-sustaining via enrollment fees. The agency’s total operating budget is $800,000, and this does not include the $25,000 needed for the start-up of Pathfinder. As girls and women thrive, so does society. I respectfully request that the Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation grant $5000 for Pathfinder. The RGK Foundation will match your grant at fifty cents to the dollar. Please contact me at Ami@genaustin.org or 512-808-4044, ext. 105 if you have questions or would like to discuss this further. I thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, Ami Kane Development Director