They can change the world They can change the world (November 11, 2005)

Girls for a Change summit kicks off year of social change projects

By Molly Tanenbaum

Last week, the San Jose Convention Center was filled with the energy and spirit of middle and high school girls eager to make a difference in their world.

Girls for a Change, an organization founded by the Santa Clara County Office of Women's Advocacy, held its fourth annual summit dedicated to "girls waking up to social change and realizing they can be change agents in their own lives and their own communities," said CEO Niko Clifford.

A total of 1,300 girls and 250 women attended the all-day event on Nov. 3, which consisted of a series of workshops on topics ranging from gang prevention to art to the role of the hip-hop generation in creating social change. Girls can select three workshops out of the 40 offered throughout the day.

Mountain View High School junior Krissa Quero was an emcee for the day, and one of about 100 girls from the school participating in the Nov. 3 event, her fourth summit since she joined Girls for a Change as a Crittenden eighth grader.

"I'm just impressed with how many girls are really into social change," Quero said, observing that attendance was higher at this year's event than in past years.

Quero has already learned a multitude of valuable skills through her involvement with the program, including fundraising, letter writing and public speaking.

The motivating idea behind Girls for a Change comes from a visible lack of leadership opportunities for girls, Clifford said.

"There needs to be a pipeline of training girls to be leaders and change agents and decision makers," Clifford said. "We are it. We're the only one."

Mayor and Mountain View High School Assistant Principal Matt Neely, who attended the summit, called the group "a unique leadership model."

"They are really good at identifying potential leaders and cultivating strong leadership skills," he said.

Neely selects girls to attend the event from Mountain View High School and described those he chose as "not uber-children but those who are ready to take the next step."

This fits in with the philosophy of Girls for a Change, according to Clifford.

"All girls are invited to join, but we focus on girls in the middle -- not necessarily the shining-star leaders, not failing out of school -- the girls in the middle who often get overlooked," Clifford said.

For Clifford, who was the first person in her family to go to college, the most essential purpose of Girls for a Change is to believe in young women who may not yet believe in themselves. While she did not have exact statistics, Clifford said she has already begun to see additional benefits for girls who participate in Girls for a Change, including a lower risk for gang involvement, teen pregnancy and dropping out of school.

"Youth are not being given possibility in their lives," she said. "What would the world be like if people looked at every young woman and said, 'I think you can be whatever you want and I think you should dream as big as you can possibly dream.' What's the worst thing that can happen?"

As a returning participant, Quero has participated in several year-long team projects that get started after the summit each year. Following the summit, girls will form "Girl Action Teams" in their own communities with other girls who attended the event, and each team will have two women coaches to help mentor their projects.

Last year, Quero and her teammates worked with Columbia Middle School in Sunnyvale to provide after-school programs as a response to 2004 budget cuts, she said. Her team also wrote to the governor and raised more than $2,000 for the project.

"I think we're the only team that raised that much money," Quero said.

This year, Quero wants to raise the bar for her team's project that might go beyond a community-based idea to something international.

The organization as a whole is also looking to expand. Though Girls for a Change began as a local Santa Clara County effort, co-CEOs Clifford and founder Whitney Smith have plans in the works to expand the program to other cities around the country, including Phoenix and Las Vegas. Their goal is to develop 10 sites, Clifford said.

E-mail Molly Tanenbaum at mtanenbaum@mv-voice.com

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