Windham Community Discusses State of Girls

Engaged members of the Willimantic community attended the final State of Girls Speaker Series event on Wednesday, October 1, at Eastern Connecticut State University.

The Speaker Series, hosted by Girl Scouts of Connecticut and generously sponsored by First Niagara Foundation, a not-for-profit charitable foundation funded by First Niagara Bank, focused on a groundbreaking report recently released by the Girl Scout Research Institute (GSRI) entitled “The State of Girls: Unfinished Business.” Those in attendance heard about the research and engaged in a conversation about challenges facing girls today and community solutions to support girls.

In addition, the state of Connecticut’s girls was discussed as recently released research from GSRI indicates Connecticut’s girls are sixth in the nation in terms of overall health and well-being. However, only 37 percent of girls are proficient or above in eighth grade math. Ten percent of girls need treatment for emotional, behavioral, or developmental issues – slightly higher than the national average.

“We’ve learned so much from hosting these panel discussions across the state,” said Mary Barneby, CEO, Girl Scouts of Connecticut. “Without the generous support of the First Niagara Foundation, we would have been unable to hear from our local communities about their concerns regarding our support for girls. Moving forward, I hope that these conversations have been a starting point for improving girls’ lives across the state, ensuring that every girl realizes her full potential.”

Chion Wolf, Producer/Announcer for WNPR, facilitated the conversation. Panelists included:

• Maryam Elahi, President and CEO, Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut
• Ruth Freeman, LCSW, Positive Parenting CT
• Liz Schmitt, Director of Enrollment Management, Miss Porter’s School
• Claire Tensa, Girl Scout alumna, 2014 Gold Award recipient, and ECSU student
• Olivia Puckett, Legislative Clerk, Council on Medical Assistance Program Oversight for the Connecticut General Assembly

“First Niagara is honored to sponsor this great event and Girl Scouts of Connecticut’s mission to promote education, confidence, and character in young women through initiatives like this speaker series,” said Marlene Piche, First Niagara’s New England Retail Banking Director. “The State of Girls Speaker Series presents a unique opportunity for people from across Connecticut to come together and speak freely about the important topic of challenges facing young women in our society.”

Each panelist provided a unique perspective about the state of girls. Much of the conversation focused on ways girls can develop their self-worth and confidence, by focusing on the strength of the bodies rather than their appearance and by praising their unique leadership style.

“The way girls think about leadership is about collaboration and teamwork - and in fact, real leaders in real business already know that secret,” said Ruth Freeman. “They know that top down isn’t working. So girls are natural leaders because they do facilitate those team ideas, but somehow they have this old boys’ network idea of what leadership is. I think another piece of this is for us as adults to notice when girls are facilitating teamwork and [call] it leadership…so we’re noticing when they’re being leaders and calling it that.”

For more information about Girl Scouts of Connecticut, visit www.gsofct.org.