Being in the seventh grade isn't easy. Peer pressure, stereotypes and popularity contests thrive in a middle-school atmosphere. It's an age when girls become young women and ponder what their futures may hold.
UCF's women's studies program is teaming up with Tuskawilla Middle School to implement the Young Women Leaders Program, which will pair female college students with seventh-grade girls to promote leadership skills and inspire the girls to attend college.
"We want to start this process much earlier than college to suggest to students that college - in fact, UCF - is a place where they can belong and imagine themselves," said Lisa Logan, director of the women's studies program. "By mentoring seventh-grade girls, the women's studies program aims to help build the future of our community by teaching them about autonomy, leadership and competence."
More than 20 UCF students have applied to become a "big sister" for fall 2007, and 10 will be chosen by April 9. Women's studies students will be able to fulfill their service-learning requirement through this program.
Every women's studies course requires 15 hours of service learning that must be completed through community service. Students must then present a final project about their work.
According to Meredith Tweed, program coordinator for YWLP and a graduate student and instructor in the women's studies program, YWLP was created on the principles of service learning and will help students connect to with the community.
"Service learning for women's studies is about combining activism with theory to create experiential knowledge, which we want our students to understand in their minds and hearts," Tweed said.
The program will start at the beginning of the next school year. The groups will have biweekly meetings and participate in hands-on activities where the girls will build self- esteem, as well as leadership and independent thinking skills. The program strives to create an open, comfortable setting for girls to explore, learn and create friendships.
"Middle school is the time when many girls begin to compete with one another for attention," Tweed said. "We want them to understand that other girls and women are a strong support system that will help them make it through the tough decisions so that they will be prepared to meet their full potential."
A sample lesson plan for a mentoring session discusses the media's effect on young girls' "self-esteem, body images and cross-cultural awareness. With a focus on the solutions, not just the problems, we can empower the group to help themselves."
Logan said the program will help girls to improve their lives.
"Basically, this program helps girls to understand and work through choices they make today that will impact their futures," Logan said. "It assures them that they are not alone as they make their choices."
Tweed agreed.
"What I hope all of the participants learn is to see themselves as leaders and to understand the ways that they can, with the support of other women around them, build a better future for the girls of the next generation," Tweed said.
The program originated at the University of Virginia and was presented to the women's studies department by Tresta DeLater, an Orlando engineer and UVA alumna who participated in YWLP.
For information, visit www.cah.ucf.edu/womensstudies/YWLP
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