About Me: Hi, my name is Caroline Waryas, and I am currently a sophomore at HHS, where I play Lacrosse, run track, work as the Class of 2028 secretary, and a student advisor. Outside of sports, I'm a part of many school clubs, most notably, I am the president and founder of the Make-A-Wish Club. Other than school, I play club lacrosse and am very involved with Make A Wish Massachusetts and Rhode Island, where I am co-captain of my team for the Youth Leadership Council. I chose to work alone since I was really determined to target the issue of the lack of women in leadership. Because nobody else wanted to target this as their capstone, I chose to do it alone. Even though it has been difficult to do all the work alone, I love the message my project sends, and I wouldn't change it if I could do it again!
Community Needs: Girls for Governance focuses on the issue of the lack of women in leadership. I focused on this issue because, as a young woman who pursues many leadership positions, it's crucial to me that I have women in my community to provide advice and representation. I want to be able to provide that for other girls like me.
To the bottom left is my community needs presentation, where I dive deeper into this issue, exploring statistics, causes, and more.
At the bottom right, you can view my Public Service Announcement, where I made an empowering video that I hope is able to influence others to think as strongly about this community issue as I do. Please look at both of these, as I believe they are really powerful resources that, if you don't feel strongly about women in leadership before, they help educate others on the depth of this issue.
Project Goals and Progress: The goal of Girls for Governance is to provide resources and representation for young women pursuing leadership in Holliston High School. There are two parts of my project, the website and the mural. On the mural, located in the language and math staircase, there are empowering women, a strong quote, and a QR code to the website. This mural is meant to inspire and empower as well as serve as a way to access the Girls For Governance website. On my website, I have a panel made of local women leaders along with their contact information and descriptions. Through this panel, anyone who scans the QR code and wishes to contact them is able to seek helpful advice and gain mentors. That is the goal of Girls For Governance: to provide a resource for those who need it to answer questions and inspire, and for those every day, no matter who is walking in the school, to see women leaders every day on my mural and continue to normalize and increase representation on a small, community level. As of 11/6/25, I've painted many people on the mural; however, it's not fully done, but it will be finished by 12/15/25. As for the website, as of 11/7, it's finished! Below are a few photos of the mural, one unfinished, one finished.
Community Partnership: For my community partnership, instead of working with a company, I decided to assemble a panel of women instead! To do this, I spoke with Susan Stone at HHS, where she helped me narrow down my list. After that, I began emailing them, and now some of them are part of this panel. All of these women, as stated before, will be displayed on the Girls For Governance Website, where they will act as resources. They will be expected to receive emails, which they can answer with advice and provide help. Below is the list of women participating, along with their details.
Dr. Barbara Fritts: Founder of Diverse Holliston, specializes in perinatal and postpartum issues, trauma, LGBTQ+ issues, relationships, anxiety, and mood disorders. She works with adults, teens, and pre-teens, and does individual, family, and couples therapy.
Jaclyn Winer: Director of Social Work at Holliston Youth and Family Services. She has a lot of experience working in residential treatment, schools, and hospital settings, where she has provided therapy, supervision, and consultation to children and adults facing a range of challenges.
Dr. Nancy Khalaf: Assistant principal at HHS, where she works as an administrator and a helpful resource for students. Previous schools she has worked at describe her as a passionate and driven educational leader focused on building relationships across the community and engaging students, teachers, and families!
How can the community help? Below is a link to the Girls For Governance website. If you or a young woman you know would be interested in leadership, or are currently pursuing leadership positions, please share and utilize the Girls For Governance resource to help spread our message and representation. These women are panelists for YOU, and they would love to hear from you! You can also access and share our mission by spreading and following our Instagram @girls.for.governance.
