Presidents’ Note – The Circle, May 2018
This year we are pleased to announce the expansion of our Girls' Circle Program to include mothers and daughters. We piloted this new effort at Mont Pleasant Middle School and Central Park Middle School. Moms and girls met for about 90 minutes each week for 6 weeks and talked about issues that affect teens and women. Child care and dinner were provided for participants. Using activities and crafts the groups explored ideas like healthy relationships, stress management, self compassion, social media, sibling rivalry and planning and building dreams for the future. One of ...
Presidents’ Note – The Circle, February 2018
Girls' Day Out 2017 was another wonderful day!
There aren’t enough words to express our gratitude to all of our volunteers, facilitators, and other community members who have demonstrated such generosity, kindness, wisdom, compassion, and dedication to improving the lives of girls in Schenectady. Click here for some pictures from this year's event.
Girls' Circles have begun, and we're launching a new program, Mother-Daughter Circles, at Central Park and Mont Pleasant Middle schools in the evenings beginning after Winter Break. Our intention is to strengthen our ...
Presidents’ Note – The Circle, November 2017
Thanks to all who were able to join us in October for our 2nd Annual Circles of Support Fundraiser. It was wonderful to gather together, to celebrate our honorees, and to talk about all of our recent activities. We are especially grateful to Mont Pleasant 8th grader Marangely Rodriguez for her bravery in sharing her Girls' Circle experiences with us.
Our connections with the community continue to grow. We are currently working with The Schenectady Foundation and Big Brothers & Big Sisters on a project called 'Mentor Link'. This is bringing together many nonprofit ...
President’s Note – The Circle, August 2017
In May we hosted our annual Girls' Circle Celebration, and it is always wonderful to connect with the mothers, aunts, and friends of our girls. This year we celebrated the graduation of four of our senior girls and we are happy to report that all four have been accepted into colleges. An older sister of one of our graduates also participated in our program and is a junior in college now. Her mother spoke eloquently at the dinner about the importance of the Girls' Circles program for her daughters, who were immigrants from Guyana and had a difficult time adjusting. She ...
Laraine Longhurst and Bernadette Cole Slaughter
Laraine Longhurst and Bernadette Cole Slaughter have been girls' circle co-leaders for five years. They are both retired educators and share the same philosophy - it's all about the girls!
Bernadette and Laraine are 100% focused on a positive, empowering learning experience in a circle where it's safe to share. As muses, they inspire, listen, enlighten, show girls that they care, and ensure that each girl in their circles expresses her voice. They credit excellent training and curriculum, but it is their consistent, creative, and deeply caring implementation of these ...
President’s Note – The Circle, May 2017
Greetings! It's been a busy winter for the WGGS. In addition to our girls and muses meeting together in their circles on a regular basis, we were able to provide our 8th through 12th grade girls with two special field trip experiences. We're also working with community partners on a reading event centered on the young adult novel All American Boys.
In April we hosted our second Parents' Day Out and are in the midst of planning this year's Girls' Circle Celebration Dinner where we look forward to honoring important women in the lives of our girls as well as our ...
President’s Note – The Circle, January 2017
Our 8th annual Girls' Day Out was held on November 16, 2016. Bringing together 150 seventh grade girls for a day of education and inspiration each year is a joy and we are all looking forward to being a positive and supportive presence in our roles as muses. A big thanks to Elaine Houston for being our keynote speaker and for spending the entire morning with our girls as they attended their workshops. We're happy to report that Girls' Circles are under way at Central Park Middle School, Mont Pleasant Middle School, Oneida Middle School, Steinmetz Career and Leadership ...
President’s Note – The Circle, November 2016
It's been a busy autumn season so far. We had a wonderful time at our first major fundraiser, and we hope that many of you did, too. We've welcomed new muses into our community, and muse training has begun. We've been fine-tuning our new website and we've joined LinkedIn: please follow us or declare yourself our colleague if you're on LinkedIn.
Along with planning our annual Girls' Day Out on November 16th, WGGS helped present a presentation on Digital Citizenship and Social Media for parents at the downtown Schnectady Public Library on November 1st. The teen panelists ...
Muse Feedback following the 2015-2016 School Year
We recently asked Muses about their experiences over the previous year. Here's what some of them said: