Empowering girls through education

The Zonta Club of Trenton/Mercer partnered with the Girl Scouts of Central and Southern NJ, Inc to empower girls through education. A US$5,000 grant from Zonta International allowed the Girl Scouts to send 35 girls to the Girl Leadership Summit and the Girl Scout STEM Conference.

Both activities are girl-led, provide hands-on learning and reflection, and include cooperative learning. At the Girl Leadership Summit, the topics—ranging anywhere from nutrition to civic engagement—prepare girls to take the lead on their futures.

During the Girl Scout STEM Conference, girls coded a Sphero Robot to guide it through a maze and experimented with paper airplanes to have a fun physics lesson on aerodynamics. Throughout the day, these hands-on, engaging activities served to get the girls interested in topics to which they might not have otherwise been exposed.

“I don’t learn by watching. If I just watch, I don’t know what I’m doing. But I get to do things in Girl Scouts. I’d never thought I’d learn all things I have,” Z’Yahne said after attending the STEM Conference.

When Z’Yahne first joined Girls Scouts, she was shy and quiet, preferring to stay near her twin sister. But throughout the year, their troop leader watched her become more confident and engage more with friends.

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