Headlines Press Release 8/24/2001

HARVARD LAW SCHOOL ATTORNEY TURNS
SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR TO HELP TEEN GIRLS

Raye Mitchell Hosts G.U.R.L.S. Rock™ 2011 Leadership Summit
For Girls 12-18 – Celebrating the Global Importance of Girls of Color

September 10, 2011 - Linen Life Gallery, San Leandro, CA

Change It Up! What Girls Say About Redefining Leadership (2008)—Girl Scouts of America

• Being a leader is important to 70% of African American, 66% of Latina, and 56% of Asian American girls compared to 49% of Caucasian girls.

• Primarily, African American girls want to be the kind of leader who stands up for her beliefs and values (88%), brings people together to get things done (87%), and tries to change the world for the better (83%).

• Even though African American girls believe that being a leader will help them to help others, they also believe it will help them develop useful skills and qualities (37% vs. 26%) and to be successful in life (38% vs. 30%) more so than African American boys.

• Yet, African American girls relate that environments in which they can develop leadership skills are scarce and do not empower them to effect change.

• Fewer than one-quarter (22%) of African American girls feel empowered to effect change at school, followed by at home (20%), in their neighborhoods (15%), and in their peer groups (14%). After-school environments rated significantly lower at 6%.

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CA – Dr. Raye Mitchell has given serious consideration to the challenges and opportunities that young and teen-aged girls face in our time: the desire to be a leader, but a scarcity of resources, global engagement, new technology, new media, becoming global leaders, and more. She found the matter of such importance that she left her private law firm to dedicate herself to inspire and empower young girls (8-18) to live lives of purpose, passion and power as future global leaders. Thus, in 2007, Dr. Mitchell formed The Making a New Reality Foundation a non-profit social entrepreneur organization.

“We need to change the conversation about how we define and engage girls as leaders. Their story is not all negative statistics,” said Mitchell when she launched The G.U.R.L.S. Rock Leadership Program in 2010. The program’s goal is to break down barriers to success by raising the bar of excellence for girls and girls of color—the new generation of game changers.

 

On Saturday, September 11, 2011 G.U.R.L.S. Rock will host its second annual San Francisco Bay Area Summit for girls 12 to 18+. Program topics will include Financial Literacy, Nutrition & Healthy Living, along with a Career and Education Forum. To commemorate the 10th Anniversary of 9/11, the summit will host a special workshop on volunteerism and service. Among the expert workshop leaders are Tovi Scruggs, M.Ed., founder of ASA Educational Services, Inc.; Issa Rae, creator of The (Mis)Adventure of Awkward Black Girl TV Series; Dr. Bonnie Wheatley, Alameda County Commission on the Status of Women; Bernida Reagan, Director of Community & Client Relations at Merriwether & Williams Insurance Services; Lacy Asbill, CoFounder, Girls Moving Forward,
Crystal Riggins, Attorney, Hoge Fenton Jones & Appel, Tiffany Bell, Resultz Health and Fitness Consultants, Julie Tarasi, Girls Incorporated of Alameda County and numerous other professional and community leaders.

   

 

Special guests will include Aimee Allison, TV personality and publisher of OaklandSeen.com; Nikki Thomas, KBLX 102.9FM Radio personality and the Nikki Thomas Network; and Sheryl Grant, entrepreneur and the founder & CEO of Sheryl Grant Enterprises, LLC.

 

WHO:          G.U.R.L.S. ROCK Founder & CEO Dr. Raye Mitchell hosts

WHAT:          G.U.R.L.S. ROCK 2011 Summit (girls 12-18+)

WHEN:          Saturday, September 10, 2011 | 8:30 a.m to 3:00 p.m.

WHERE:          Linen Life Gallery, 771 East 14th St., San Leandro, CA

COST:          $50 pp, Register online: www.register2011gurlsrock.eventbrite.com

CONTACT:    LaNiece Jones | 510.568.5899 | LaNiece@LAJonesMedia.com

 G.U.R.L.S. ROCK is grateful to its sponsors and supporters: State Senator Ellen Corbett, San Leandro Councilmember Ursula Reed, Kaiser Permanente, Region IX Office on Women’s Health, Genentech; myshadesmagazine.net, Girls Moving Forward, OaklandSeen, and corporate contributors of services and merchandise, Colgate Palmolive, Walmart, Nestle,  and General Mills.

ABOUT G.U.R.L.S. ROCK

Founded by Dr. Raye Mitchell in 2010, G.U.R.L.S. Rock is a global leadership-training initiative of the The Making a New Reality Foundation, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. As a social entrepreneur program celebrating the importance of girls and girls of color as the next generation of global leaders, G.U.R.L.S. Rock has a different approach to supporting the growth and development of girls of color ages 8-18. “G.U.R.L.S.” stands for Growth, Unity, Respect, Leadership, Success. To learn more about G.U.R.L.S. Rock, please visit

www.GurlsRock.org and www.fb.com/GurlsRockPower on FaceBook.

 

ABOUT DR. RAYE MITCHELL:

“Dr. Raye” is the social entrepreneur founder of The Making a New Reality Foundation.  She is a recipient of a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from Congresswoman Barbara Lee and a Certificate of Recognition from California Legislature Assembly for "Demonstrating Leadership in the Support of the Development of Girls." Dr. Raye Mitchell is a Harvard Law School graduate and recipient of the Jefferson Award for Public Service. www.rayemitchell.com.