Students start club to empower girls
BETHEL — For seventh-graders Hannah Stowell and Alexandra Bender, empowering other girls is second nature.
Both girls said their mothers and other female relatives have inspired them to fight for gender equality.
“It’s just something I’ve grown up with,” Stowell said. “We have a lot of amazing women in our lives that help us and teach us that we’re just as important, too.”
It’s why the students decided to start a club at Bethel Middle School dedicated to
gender equality and promoting education for girls around the world.
“We’re really fortunate to go to this school and have everything we have,” said Stowell, president of the club. “It’s important to help people who don’t have the same opportunities we have.”
The club, Girl Up, is affiliated with the United Nations organization of the same name. The organization, founded in 2010, provides leadership training programs for girls and funds efforts to promote their education, health and more.
“The whole idea of empowering girls and their education sounded cool to us,” said Bender, the club’s vice president.
Girl Up has more than 1,900 clubs around the world, according to its website. Most of the clubs are at high schools or colleges.
“Middle school is pretty revolutionary that these girls are doing this,” said Caitlin Boles, the club’s adviser and a seventhgrade social studies teacher at the school.
The club meets twice a month and has 25 members. The girls said they would love to bring the club to the high school once they attend there.
Stowell said when she learned her cousin is part of her high school’s Girl Up program in New Hampshire, she loved the idea and her mom encouraged her to bring the club to Bethel.
The girls gave a presentation to Boles about the club and asked her to be their adviser. Boles was quickly on board.
“As a social studies teacher, we only hope our kids would want to do something like this,” Boles said.
The club ties perfectly into the social studies curriculum on human rights, a lesson Boles said she hopes helps the kids build empathy and become “true global citizens.”
“A big thing for me is making the kids be the activists, be the changemakers,” she said.
“The fact that these girls are willing to go above and beyond to really educate, not only themselves, but others, is a real gift,” Boles added.
The students are studying human rights violations around the world, with Bender learning about the lack of education for girls in Sudan and Stowell researching the same issue in Uganda.
Stowell said she has learned 35 percent of Ugandan girls drop out of school to marry, while 23 percent drop out due to pregnancy.
“It’s important that Girls Up teaches girls in this country that their education is just as important as their peers,” Stowell said.
The club’s first fundraiser, a “Penny Wars” drive, will begin in the new year. They will collect money for a school Girl Up is building for refugee girls in Uganda. By raising $1,000, the club will fund a classroom, including part of a teacher’s salary and supplies.
The club also plans to hold a Zumba night later this school year to raise money. The students also hope to raise awareness among their peers for issues girls around the world face.
“One of the things we want to do is try and just make kids understand that this stuff is really happening,” Stowell said. “You may not want to go to school every day. You don’t want to wake up early, but our education is important.”
“We’re really fortunate to go to this school and have everything we have. It’s important to help people who don’t have the same opportunities we have.” Hannah Stowell, president of Girl Up