Girls For A Change has helped me grow as a young woman and gave me the confidence and pride I carry on today.  After being urged by my guidance counselor and my best friends in high school, I joined GFC in 2003. Even though I wasn’t sure at first about joining, I went on to be a co-leader of my Girl Action Team, as well as a member of the 2004-2005 Silicon Valley Girl Steering Committee. I’ll be a senior in college this coming fall at Syracuse University, and I have to say my activities in college have been shaped by the things GFC taught me.

I’ve been actively involved in the Syracuse, NY community by engaging in service and being a girls’ basketball coach at an after-school program on the north side. During my community work, the challenges I see young girls struggling with make me even more interested in being involved in my community both in Syracuse and the Bay Area. I try to stay involved with GFC any way that I can. I was fortunate to be one of the Juniper interns during summer 2007 and am program intern this summer.  Any chance I get to work with the organization gives me greater insight that I can take back to the Syracuse community. I learn more about empowering the young girls I coach to believe in themselves and in their future. If I learned one thing from GFC; it is that believing can only come true through action. I am so excited that GFC is going national and hope that one day there will be Girl Action Teams in Syracuse. I think GFC in Syracuse can provide an empowering outlet that will touch the lives of many of the girls I coach and work with through my community service-.