Service Learning Log 6

Activism:

This week we had our last YWLP big sister meeting which was bitter sweet. We did the last event that we will be doing with the little sisters, which is the positive affirmations where your peers write nice things about you. Our successes remain all the positive tweets and feedback we keep getting from the little sisters as well as the plans they have for the items they want to submit to the zine. Our pitfalls include that the amount of submissions we’ve actually received is low, and we will need way more to compile our zine for this semester. My group and I expect more submissions to trickle in as the deadline approaches and some thereafter. This weekend we have our final alumni event which is a picnic in the park. It’s going to be a great bonding experience.

Reflection:

 This week in class we read two articles where the girls from the articles created their own ideas on leadership based on social constructions that were provided to them from the heads of the research. In the article Girl Talk: Adolescent Girl’s perception of Leadership the girls identified leadership largely in un-transactional ways (Schoenberg 2008).That reminded me of my little mentors and our discussion last week on body issues. The girls were readily raising their hands and providing opinions about leadership in body imaging and how you don’t have to look a certain way or dress a certain way to still be a leader. The little sisters also identified that society at large sees a woman leader as the ball buster, but also saw that they didn’t agree with that ideal (Schoenberg 2008). In the second article, Change it Up, data was collected from a large number of girls, boys and moms and was based on society’s ideals of leadership. I like that the girls picked and chose what they wanted to keep and what they wanted to cast away in their own ideals of leadership. I was very pleased that they had their own ideals and principles and weren’t afraid to express them. This week has changed the way I view Girl’s leadership, by showing yet again, how much my little mentors and girls in general have thought processes that are way beyond what I thought their scope of thought would be. I learned that girls see what society wants them to do and sees what they want and who they are and then makes a choice to either change their outlook or not participate in society’s system of leadership at all.

 Reciprocity:

I believe that with each semester in YWLP I not only give the girls guidance I gain a sense of hope for the future. Hope that these girls will be able to see society and what society tries to propose and sets standards for them, and they can choose to participate or create their own standards. I believe the little sisters have such a strong insight into the world around them that I know they will be able to live their lives in a way that is chosen by them. I hope they will see that its’ all about their choices on whether or not to participate in a system traditionally or participate in a system in an unconventional way. These girls have made me more aware than ever that what we do in YWLP is necessary and needed; we don’t create something in the girls we help bring something to the light that’s already present.

Word Count: 579

Works Cited

Schoenberg, J. Change It Up: What girl’s say about redefining leadership. Girls Scouts of the USA, 2008.

                New York, N.Y. Executive Summary, 52 pp.

NWSA Assignment

I feel that these three publications, “Blue Jean, Being Seen and Heard, and Hunger, Poverty and 12 Year Old Girls are related to girls leadership in different ways.  The Blue Jean magazine is a magazine that builds on empowering teen girls through enabling them with leadership opportunities by way of enabling them an avenue to publish works (Blue Jean 2011). Being Seen and Heard is an article that describes how girl’s leadership and their freedom is being taken away from them by the new spotlight they are receiving and their private sphere becoming increasingly less private (Harris 2004). The online social networks, web cams, and reality networks are enabling girls to share things that once were considered taboo to be normal (Harris 2004). Hunger, Poverty and 12 Year Old Girls is an article that discusses how girls in other countries are forced because of financial straits to a life of early adulthood (Smith 2011).

The author of this article is in a campaign that provides girls with the resources so they can stay young girls and advance into adulthood with a leg up on their futures to being productive members of society (Smith 2011). These three different articles discuss different ways that girl’s leadership is being put into practice throughout the world. To help us understand girl’s leadership we can look into the studies and research on girls to help us draw conclusions on ways to truly understand what it is for girls to have leadership and then facilitating that leadership.

Books like Future Girl and the different discourses that we’ve read can help us understand what girls leadership needs to grow and flourish and what needs to be changed so that girl’s leadership can continue to grow as a discipline and help girls worldwide that would over-wise not have a voice. A stake for girl’s leadership would be that it needs to have multiple avenues and resources to proceed so that it can continue to develop and thrive in the upcoming generations.

Word Count: 361

Work Cited:

Cydney Smith. Hunger, Poverty and 12 Year Old Girls?Mompreneur Wellness.2011. Online Publication. http://www.mompreneurwellness.com/thegirleffect/

Empowering Teen Girls. Blue Jean Publishing. Blue Jean: What Young Women are Thinking, Saying, and Doing. 2011. http://bluejeanpublishing.com/10.html

Harris, Anita. Future Girl. New York: Routledge, 2004. Print.

 

 

YWLP Activism Log 5

Activism:

During this week we had another little sister meeting and the major theme was body image, we continued to obtain tweets from our little sisters, and last week we obtained our first submissions for the zine. What I’ve noticed and what I would consider to be our first set back is that the girls from my school haven’t submitted any zine submissions, and it seems that unless we continue to remind them every day it doesn’t seem to be a thought that crosses their minds. This saddens me a bit because I see this zine as a way for our littles to let their voices be heard, a way that society can see that girls are more than what so many people think and deserve respect. I see our little sisters as some girls with something to say and I just want them to see themselves that way. Next week is our fundraiser and alumni event at Chick Fil a, and I’m very hopeful that we will have a lot of participation and hopefully more zine submissions!!! The scrapbook is coming together nicely we take pictures at every event, and pretty much every time we get a chance.

Reflection:

The meeting with our littles this week and our ongoing project as a whole relates to this week’s reading in that our project does exactly what Harris describes in her chapter 5 being seen and heard where  it discusses how the private realm of girls is being taken away  by way of the regulation of interiority (Harris 2004). Girls of today see their access to the public sphere as a get way for them to become stars and a good example of the can do girl. Nothing private is truly private anymore because of web cams, personal blogs, and reality television that takes even those most private moments and puts them on broadcasts so all the world can see. Reality television is so common and some apart of everyday that girls think it’s normal to air their dirty laundry. Television and that public avenue has become a way that even the “average girl” can become a star (Harris 2004).

Reciprocity:

Personally, throughout the course of our service learning project I’ve gained even more respect for our little sisters than I already had. These girls never cease to amaze me with their strong opinions and ideologies about the topics that we have each week. The girls saw and explained things throughout the course of our lessons and our project that I never would of thought they’d pick up on. I’m hopeful that throughout these final weeks of our service learning project we will gain more zine submissions and twitter posts and start to compile and finally finish the scrapbooks that our littles designed.

Word Count: 440

Work Cited:

Harris, Anita. Future Girl. New York: Routledge, 2004. Print.

Girls Rock!!!

The movie Girl’s ROCK was really an enjoyable experience. It was very uplifting to see a camp that encouraged girls to be themselves and to concentrate on their talents and abilities rather than just their physical appearance. The camp did a great job of following the ideas from Josephine Van Linden and Carl Fertman of Youth Leadership as well as McNeil Carole author of New Directions in Youth Development. These authors noted that an important part of adolescent leadership is giving the girls’ free reign to practice leadership rather than then controlling the girls and practicing leadership FOR them. The camp counselors and directors served as guidance counselors and mediators when the groups had disagreements or needed to be reminded of their ultimate goal, but they didn’t control the girl’s decision-making processes when it came to their band.

 I also like how the camp’s way of assembling groups provided the girls with free reign as well. The girls got to choose the genre of music they were interested in as well as the construction of their own actual songs. The girls were put into a situation where they had to make decisions. Throughout the course of the camp there were disputes, and through resolution of these disputes the girls learned valuable lessons.  For instance, they learned you don’t have to be THE leader to be A leader. Each member in the group exercised leadership in her own right. The conflict resolution was truly enlightening because once again the camp counselors provided an environment that facilitated resolution, but they did not FORCE the girls to make up; they provided an environment where every group member could be heard and their opinions and feelings respected. This shows Girl’s leadership is growing and expanding and is a perfect example of how programs can make a difference. It shows girl’s leadership is alive and well and will only grow to be bigger and more powerful for the future generations of adolescent leaders.

Word count: 328

Works Cited

McNeil, Carole. Bridging Generation: Applying ‘Adult’ Leadership Theories to Youth Leadership Development. 2006: 27-43. Print.

Van Linden, Josephine. A., Fertmen, Carl I. Youth Leadership: A Guide to Understanding Leadership Development in Adolescents.1998:63-95.Print