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Risa

I can honestly say being involved with Girls For A Change (GFC) changed my entire perspective on my life and the world at large. I had the pleasure of being a member of the Girl Steering Committee in Phoenix from my sophomore year in high school (2005) until I graduated (2008). Working alongside the other members of the Girl Steering Committee, the Phoenix staff, and board members made for a truly inspiring experience. Prior to being on the Girl Steering Committee I focused on community service.  I still think community service has an important role to play in fixing our world, but GFC also challenged me to be a change agent—to be someone who breaks the cycles which are holding us back. 

Currently in my sophomore year at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, I’m creating my own major in social change. I hope to study past movements as well as current issues so that I can contribute to solving the many issues we’re facing. My major is directly inspired by what I learned and felt at GFC. I am formally studying these topics, and am also active on committees which examine campus culture and are chartered by our student government, am a member of Duke’s NOW chapter, regularly engage with the Duke Women’s Center and Center for LGBT Life. I am also initiating reform among the Jewish community.  In February of 2010 I brought Representative Kyrsten Sinema, a GFC Phoenix Board Member, to Duke to meet with a number of student groups. Though I’ll graduate in two years, it is a life-long goal of mine to be an agent for positive change in the communities—geographically based and sociologically based—of which I am a member. A life-long athlete and sports enthusiast, I once envisioned myself having a career in a sports league or organization. Now, however, I hope to pursue a Ph.D. to study the ways that sport can be used for positive social change, community development and outreach—a philosophy which combines two of my greatest passions and for which I credit GFC. Lastly, the women with whom I formed relationships as a member of the Girl Steering Committee continue to serve as role models for me.  I am frequently in touch with them and our relationships have only grown now that I am older. They continue to inspire me, support me and challenge me in all that I do. My nuanced perspective on change, the idea for my major and future academic work and the relationships I formed are only a few of the ways that GFC played a truly pivotal role in my life and continues to influence me.


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