After the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, you might be thinking, “Wow, I need a break!” If you’re a young girl with a female mentor, you’re in luck! “‘She Gives Me a Break from the World’: Formal Youth Mentoring Relationships Between Adolescent Girls and Adult Women” highlights benefits with which female-youth mentoring relationships provide girls: Real emotional support; Development of new skills and...

I want to acknowledge women that embody the mutual cycles of empowerment that SWSG aspires to develop in each of its participants. Women that see a problem and initiate a solution.  We all have ideas and opinions: “You know what would make a great iPhone app?”… “I really wish someone could restore that old library”… “You know what the government SHOULD do!?”, but this series of blogs will emphasize women...

In my one and a half years with SWSG, I’ve been truly lucky to be supervised by our National Director of Program Operations, Meghan Trombly. Last night, I had the chance to attend the Comcast Leadership Awards and cheer wildly as Meghan was recognized for her unwavering commitment to civic engagement and youth development. The Comcast Leadership Awards are awarded each year at City Year‘s Summer Academy to corps alumni who...

I’m often frustrated with the television characters on shows aimed at adolescents and teenagers – Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, the Kardashians et al – that focus heavily, if not predominantly, on the (highly unattainable) physical female appearance. It caused me to reminisce about one of my favorite shows, Gilmore Girls, which ran from 2000-2007.  The brainchild of Amy Sherman-Palladino (hooray for female writers!), a single...

“Safe cosmetics”–before  January of this year, that term meant nothing to me.  By the time this past semester rolled around, I began to understand the importance of safe cosmetics through the Supporting a Cause curriculum.  The girls made natural beauty products to sell at the end of the semester.  The girls orchestrated the sale, then donated the profits to a cause of their choice. Fast forward to summer, and I’m an intern,...