Our team works tirelessly to improve children’s lives through arts education, but they also volunteer their time and talents to furthering the missions of other amazing organizations. Follow our monthly #SuperStaff feature to learn more about the causes that our staff members give back to! This March, check out Program Manager Sylvia Hathaway Chavez’s work with Girls Leadership.
By Program Manager Sylvia Hathaway Chavez
One of the great benefits of working at P.S. ARTS is the organization’s support of its employees’ artistic and professional development. So, while serving as a Program Manager in our South Bay region and with the Inside Out Community Arts Program, I’ve also been able to stay connected to a nonprofit organization that has been close to my heart for many years called Girl’s Leadership (GL). My work with GL allows me to keep my teaching skills sharp while working with a cause I care deeply about — support and education for women and girls.
The mission of GL is to “teach girls to know who they are, what they believe, and how to express it, empowering them to create change in their world.” The work is based on using social and emotional learning (SEL), theater games, and role play to teach young girls how personal leadership in their own lives can translate to leadership skills in the world. One of the GL programs I teach is the Parent and Daughter Workshop, where girls bring a parent to each workshop to help reinforce skills like asking for what they need, saying how they feel, and apologizing when they have done something wrong. In these workshops we role play how to have difficult conversations with our friends, using parents as “the other girl” in the conflict, so that the girls will be more prepared as conflicts arise in their daily lives.
Growing up, I was a pretty shy kid. While I was able to transform into my confident self onstage in theater, music, and dance performances, I struggled to speak out or stand up for myself in my daily life. Now, as an educator with Girls Leadership, I see those same qualities I had as a kid in so many of my young students: girls who are afraid to use their voices, who are ashamed of their uniqueness, and who don’t see themselves as leaders in their own lives (let alone in the world around them). So, I’m honored to be able to deliver this curriculum, which includes lessons I believe are vital to any future leader’s success and that I regularly apply in my own personal and professional life today.
GL is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, with satellite locations in New Jersey and Colorado. However, it’s an exciting time for the organization as they are currently expanding to Los Angeles County and Orange County. There are already upcoming Parent Daughter workshops in Burbank, Encino (taught by yours truly), and Newport Beach, with more on the way. If you’re interested in learning more about workshops, summer camps, or to browse their many resources for parents of girls, check out their website at www.girlsleadership.org.
