EVENTS AND UPDATES

Letter from the President of the Board

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Happy December to you all! As many of you know, we spent the 2006/2007 school year on a program hiatus. Well, the workshop program may have taken a break but we haven’t! Our Board of Directors has been hard at work over the last year to make the GCW experience even more meaningful for the girls and women who participate - We are happy to report that we approved our 3-year strategic plan in September and are confident that we are well-positioned to better serve our girls through quality programming, and have the structural foundation and tools in place now to support our goal to expand GCW’s reach in NYC over the next three years.  We have focused on: 1) Improving upon our program curriculum, offering shadowing opportunities for students and strengthening links with teachers, staff, students and volunteers; 2) Building our Board of Directors – including enhancing our governance structure and bringing on new, dynamic Board members; and 3) Developing a more robust fundraising strategy.   

We can’t wait to launch our 2008 workshop program in February, and we hope to see many of you back as volunteer panelists.  We are all very excited about working with the staff at Satellite Academy High School – both new and veteran – and even more excited about reaching out to a new group of girls.  While maintaining what we see as the best part of our program – small, personalized, interactive sessions between students and a highly talented, diverse group of NYC-based professional women – we have begun the process of creating a scalable model that we can introduce to new schools by building out our supplemental teacher-led curriculum.  Based on feedback we garnered from a broad survey of our stakeholders as well as holding an intensive full-day ‘focus group’ last autumn with past panelists, staff and students, our curriculum emphasizes the importance of college as well as practical job skills, self-exploration and creating a plan for identifying personal goals and mapping out steps out steps to achieve those goals.

To help steer the organization through its next phase, we are very fortunate that Malia Miller-Censi, Jessica Shiller and Malaika Scott-McLaughlin have joined the Board of Directors.   Malia spent many years doing PR and Communications at Share Our Strength in Washington D.C. She moved to NYC last year and is now the Events Manager at City Harvest.   Jessica, a former Satellite Academy teacher and GCW’s first ‘point teacher’ back in 2001, has since completed her PhD in education policy at NYU and is currently a professor at Lehman College.  Malaika was a GCW panelist while working at Skadden, Arps as a Legal Assistant and is in her second year at Pace University Law School in NYC. Each brings an invigorating new element to our group and we are truly honored to have them. Additionally, we are thrilled that Amy Andrieux has returned to New York and re-joined our board. Amy is currently a senior producer at MTV.

As we embark on our 6th year of programming, I cannot stress enough our gratitude to all of you who are part of our community by attending our events, volunteering and making generous donations.  We plan to send a newsletter out twice a year so as to keep you up to date with our activities. 

We look forward to seeing you all very soon.

All the best,

Erica Wax

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GCW Hosts Second Annual “Wines by Women” Event

On October 3, 2007, Girls Career Workshop held our second annual “Wines by Women” cocktail reception and fundraiser.  The event was generously hosted by Harlem Vintage, a wine shop owned by Jai Jai Greenfield, a long-time GCW supporter and volunteer on our small business panel. The event featured wines from six wineries that are either women-owned, women-run, and/or employ women as the chief wine-makers:  Gosset Champagnes, St. Supery Vinyards, Selene Wines, Comtesse Thérèse Winery, Allegrini, and Montirius. 

As about 65 guests entered the chic yet welcoming atmosphere of Harlem Vintage, they were greeted with a glass of crisp, flavorful champagne.  Guests mingled for most of the evening, enjoying the wines, cheese, and hors d’oeuvres. 

There was an informal yet fascinating discussion of what it’s like to be a woman in the traditionally male-dominated world of wine.  Oumy Diaw, a Product Manager for Palm Bay Imports, which donated the delicious Gosset champagne, mentioned that she felt welcomed by the men around her.  Oumy theorized that perhaps most men would rather listen to a woman talk about the sensual experience of wine!  Margo Kurtz, a Sales Representative for Winebow, which donated the St. Supery, the Allegrini, and the Montirius, told of her early dues-paying days, proving her worth by hauling crates of wine alongside men twice her size.  Theresa Dilworth, owner and chief winemaker for Comtesse Thérèse, described “starting small” by planting just two acres, and working up from there.  The remarks mirrored the insightful discussions we hear during our workshop panels for our high school students, except the topic and the setting were most definitely for those over 21 years of age!

The evening was rounded out by a sumptuous table of cheese pairings donated by Stinky Cheese shop of Brooklyn.  Cheesemonger Danielle Jakubowski was on-site to serve and discuss the cheeses.  In addition, hors d’oeuvres were donated by Dufour Pastry Kitchens and Sauces ‘n Love, Inc.  EILEEN FISHER clothing company provided a sponsorship grant for the event.

Nearly $5,000 was raised, making a significant impact in our ability to serve our girls this year.  Thanks to all our guests, donors, and sponsors for a deliciously successful evening.

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Search for Executive Director

After six years in operation - and managed by an all-volunteer Board of Directors - Girls Career Workshop is looking to hire its first Executive Director.

The purpose of this position is to manage the operations of Girls Career Workshop (GCW), a NYC-based non-profit organization established in 2001.  The Program Director has principal responsibility for the implementation and management of GCW’s strategic plan to improve and enhance the organization’s services, expand reach and maintain its high level of success. 

This is an entrepreneurial position with flexible hours, which is currently part-time (15 to 20 hours per week), but has the potential to transition to full-time as the organization grows.  This is a fantastic opportunity for a dynamic woman with knowledge of and experience in the NYC educational system and experience in managing projects/organizations.  Ideally, we would like someone with a proven track record in fundraising (events & grant proposals) as well.

Qualified candidates should send cover/resumes to info@girlscareerworkshop.org.  We are looking to hire immediately.

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VOLUNTEER NOTES

During the last six years, over 65 fantastic women have volunteered their time and talent to participate in GCW workshops as panelists – providing a human face to the often daunting task of preparing for future education and career paths.  In our subsequent newsletters, you will hear directly from volunteers about their volunteering experience.  We will look to contributors in this space to provide us with insights that they gleaned, surprises that they encountered, suggestions for improvements and ways you all can help. 

What we’ve heard from our volunteers over and over is that they expected to come in to teach the girls but left feeling like they had learned something as well. Dr. Celia Irvine, a psychologist with the New York City Police Department said, “I was impressed by how thoughtful the girls’ questions were. The more time I spent with them the more impressed I became.”  It is thrilling to watch the girls and the volunteer panelists warm to each other over the course of a workshop. Tamika Rivera, the owner of “Therapy in Williamsburg, Brooklyn said after her experience as a panelist, “I’d love to have the chance to meet with these girls every week. It is clear they are interested in making a bright future for themselves and I would love to be a part of that.”

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STUDENTS SPEAK OUT

Watch this space for a window into our students’ experience once the 2008 program gets underway! 

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HOW YOU CAN HELP

There are so many ways you can help Girls Career Workshop:

1. Help us find an Executive Director. GCW is looking for an energetic and dynamic woman who can manage the day-to-day running of GCW and take a leadership role in driving our growth.  If you have any ideas please send us an e-mail message at info@girlscareerworkshop.org.

2. Volunteer! We’d love to have you sit on a panel, invite a girl to your place of business, or help out with one of our events. If you are interested please send us an e-mail message at info@girlscareerworkshop.org. 

3. Attend our events! We’ll send out invitations as our events draw near. We always love to see you.

4. Ideas, Ideas, Ideas!  Please send us your suggestions for outreach activities, event venues or sponsors, potential partner organizations and like-minded individuals, funding opportunities and other ways to get the word out on GCW. 

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SPECIAL THANKS

We want to acknowledge the dedication of two of our former GCW Board members. Cristina Rueda, one of our founders, continues to provide indispensable strategic advice and support to this organization... even all the way from her current home-base in Shanghai, China! Martha Marina Dao is our graphic designer extraordinaire - she designed our logo so many years ago and continues to support us with her fantastic designs for invitations, posters and this very newsletter! Both of you are always ready and willing to lend us your expertise and we can’t thank you enough! We also want to thank Stacey Flanagan of SLF Consulting who we tasked with helping us to develop a 3-year strategic plan. Stacey worked with us to define our medium-term objectives, directed us toward a more effective governance structure, connected us more thoroughly with the non-profit community in New York and helped us develop a list of potential partner/sponsor/funding entities.

GCW Board Members

Amy Andrieux
Jane Grimes
Andrea Salwen Kopel
Vivienne LaBorde
Rachel Levine
Malia Miller-Censi
Heather O'Neill
Jessica Shiller
Malaika Scott-McLaughlin
Erica Wax

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