Buckhannon Branch AAUW partners with the Buckhannon Business and Professional Women to sponsor GEMS, which is a mentoring program for at-risk girls. They contact the local high school and ask for the guidance counselors to recommend seventh grade girls who are at risk and invite them to participate in the program. Girls are partnered with a mentor who spends a certain amount of hours with them a week discussing school, work, self-esteem issues, drugs, alcohol, and other related topics. The goal is to get them interested in academics so they will strive to achieve in middle school and high school, and then go to college. Women help them with activities as varied as hair and make-up to test preparation, all to help them feel better about themselves and their abilities. School officials say that so far the girls are doing better in school and are experiencing fewer behavioral problems.
Contact::
Sylvia Elmore, Buckhannon Branch President, (304) 472-8535
Many branches across West Virginia have sponsored Expanding Your Horizons in Science and Mathematics conferences. EYH Conferences target middle school girls and provide them with hands-on workshops which are led by female scientists and mathematicians. Girls also get to hear career panelists who take questions about how they prepared for their careers, how they balance work with family, and other important issues.
EYH conferences are sponsored in conjunction with Association of Women in Science; Math-Science Network; West Virginia Department of Education, Sex Equity Program; West Virginia University Foundation; Delta Kappa Gamma; Girl Scouts; colleges/universities in the cities where they are held; government research facilities; and local businesses in the community. AAUW branch members usually make up the local arrangements committees; however, in some branches where there are female scientists and mathematicians, the members are also workshop presenters and keynote speakers. The workshops generate a great deal of publicity in the local media (newspaper, radio, and television) as well as having our logo on the t-shirts that are given to the girls and presenters. Costs are minimal and money is available to cover the costs for girls without the means to pay.
Contact:
Dee Kapourales, Mingo-Pike Branch President, (304) 235-3770
or
Barbara White, Beckley Branch,
barbara.white@mailcity.com (304)
253-0267 (h) or (304) 256-2824 (w)
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2002
Last changed
06-Jun-2002