Women's Leadership
Welcome to SAVA's Women's Leadership class
SAVA has partnered with Soroptimist (a non-profit organization dedicated to helping women gain education and self-reliance) to create a class that promotes leadership skills, career exploration, goals setting and advocacy for women.
Week 1: Leadership is off to a great start!
I am thrilled to have a few veterans of the leadership program and some terrific new faces. This is going to be an amazing semester. During our first session we welcomed all, discussed class expectations, course content, enjoyed a fun ice-breaker and engaged in a meaning discussion and activity using the article linked below; 7 Ways Women Can Lift Each Other UP!
Andra, Andrea (the twins) and Phyllis M. were there to support and encourage meaningful conversation.
If you would like to join Women's Leadership, please come and talk to me! You will need to watch the above slide show and read the article at the end. Please take notes. :)
Week 2: This week we began our first session of Soroptimist's Dream It, Be It program!!
Session One: Discover Your Dreams was lead by Phyllis Hayashi. We discussed people we admire and how the attributes of those people reflect values/attributes we have for ourselves. We watched a great video on Gratitude and students wrote letters to a person they admire with the intent that they will in some way share the letter with their person. Session One ends with a fun project - Vision Boards
Week 3: This was a special week! Following "Good Things", students continued our ongoing focus: Self-Confidence and they each wrote themselves an affirmation. Our primary focus this week was to identify our core values as individuals and understand the importance of having values. Andra and I engaged groups in defining specific values as students narrowed their lists from 20 to 5.
Values: a person's principles or standards of behavior; one's judgment of what is important in life.
Why is it important to have values? (student responses):
"It's important to have values because it can keep you in check or help you become what you want to. Also helps you find like-minded people, and can help you determine who you want to surround yourself with."
"It is important to have values because it helps you remind yourself of who you are and how you want to present yourself to others."
"The reason it's important to have values is because when I don't have them or know them, I get walked on and I don't treat myself right. My values remind me of who I am and how I wan to be treated by others and myself."
Week 4: This week we were very lucky to have Soroptimist member Sarah Lee present the Dream It Be It Session 2: Exploring Careers.
Sarah led our young women leaders through activities that helped identity work values and careers suggestions that matched those values. We were very lucky to have 6 volunteers in our class all enthusiastically engaging in conversations with our girls!
Week 5 - This week our Leadership class was very lucky to have Soroptimist member Lisa Bartoe present Session 3 of Dream It Be It: Creating Achievable Goals. Lisa led our young leaders through a lesson on goal setting and action. We learned to use the acronym SMART as a tool to help set goals. SMART refers to:
- Specific: clear, well-defined
- Measurable: detailed, numbers
- Attainable: achievable, realistic
- Relevant: important to you, your "why"
- Time-Bound: deadline, end
Thank you to Phyllis H. and Phyllis M. for supporting our class and adding valuable discussion!!
Week 6 -
This week our focus was on career exploration and gender inequality. To prepare for next semesters guest speakers and field trips, we asked students to take a career inventory assessment:
This was a great resource!
Following that activity, we formed groups of three and read the following article:
There were some really great discussions about gender inequality, domestic violence and how the issue is global and local. We intend to go beyond identifying the issue and find community resources that support and promote equality.
This was a great pre-class to next week's session: Overcoming Obstacles.
We ended with a really positive creative activity!
Major Obstacles for women:
- Low self-esteem and poor body image
- Physical and/or sexual violence
- Bullying and Peer Pressure
- Family Obligations
- Sexual Harassment
- Sex Discrimination
Solutions to rise above these obstacles:
- Seeking a Mentor
- Developing a Support System
- Practicing Self Care
- Becoming an Advocate for Change
Week 7 - This week we had a wonderful meeting, casual and conversational, where we discussed Dream It Be It: Session 4 Rising Above Obstacles. The twin, Andra and Andreea, led a discussion about several obstacles women face and allowed for girls to voice their opinions about and examples of where they see or have experienced these obstacles. Over the course of the class, we identified the need for girls to speak up and challenge others who create these obstacles for women, simple because "it's always been that way". We watched a powerful video about female inequality in the UK, but it truly rings true for issues in the United States as well.
Week 8 - This week we tackled 6 obstacles that women face that were presented last week. Due to low-ish attendance last week and the importance of this issue, we revisited obstacles. Each student read an informational piece about a specific obstacle and then presented to the group.
We also discussed the upcoming Run for a Safe Haven and explored the website for My Sisters House. Our girls participated in the #whyirun to support My Sisters House
Week 9 - This week our wonderful twins presented us with Dream It, Be It - Session 5: Turning Failure into Success. We learned about resilience and how to re-frame experiencing a failure to understand the usefulness of mistakes in order to move forward.
We also made the annual SAVA Women's Leadership t-shirts! This is our second year making our own shirts for the class. We were them as a team shirt for the Run for a Safe Haven.
Run for a Safe Haven! Thank you to our participants that made it out early on Saturday morning to support My Sisters House. It was a wonderful run/walk. It is always special to see so many people come out to support MSH and stand up to domestic violence and human trafficking. This year SAVA Women's Leadership raised $250 for MSH!
A huge thank you to My Sisters House for letting us participate in the event!!!
Week 10 - This week Nilda from My Sisters House came to lead us in DIBI Session 6: Balancing Your Stress. During this great session we identified where stress exists in our lives and then came up with ideas to help combat our stress. The twins led us in some fun meditation exercises!!
Week 11 - Our second to last session! Wow! It has been a fast semester! Today was a really great session! With the ropes course coming up on Monday, I wanted to talk about fear and courage. We read a great article and watched a TedTalk from Caroline Paul (Both are linked in the presentation to the left. There was good reflection about our class and what next semester will look like.
