Congratulations to Lynsie Whitlow - the lucky winner of 2 reservations to the WFA's 2011 POWER OF THE PURSE event or 2012 DESIGNING WOMEN event!

WFA appreciates everyone who completed our Perception Survey!

This month WFA celebrates: Lynnette's second anniversary as Executive Director and two projects by CLINTON SCHOOL OF PUBLIC SERVICE students:  a Practicum Project revisiting the 1973 REPORT ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN ARKANSAS and a Capstone Project by Hilary Trudell to provide research on young women's high school graduation rates and the issues that impact them.

This past spring marked the 12th year of WFA's GIRLS OF PROMISE conferences with 361 YOUNG WOMEN becoming 2011 alumnae.  Also this spring: Girls of Promise 2007 alumnae graduated from high school and Girls of Promise 2003 alumnae who went straight on to a 4-year college track graduated with bachelor's degrees.

Girls of Promise is one program that "prepares students to compete in a world where technology changes with blinding speed" - a goal of the Southern Regional Education Board outlined in THIS RECENT ARTICLE.

ALUMNAE: We would love to give each of you a personal congratulation on your milestone achievements!  Let us know what you're up to by taking a few minutes to complete THIS SURVEY, then "Like" us on FACEBOOK.COM/GIRLSOFPROMISE to be the first to know about great opportunities just for Girls of Promise alumnae.

Check out this INTERVIEW with Power of the Purse keynote speaker Abigail Disney.  The Forbes interview touches on Ms. Disney's philanthropy and her upcoming PBS mini-series Women, War & Peace. 

POWER OF THE PURSE RESERVATIONS

Reservations are $100 each or $1000 for a table and are available ONLINE.  Corporate SPONSORSHIPS are also available.  

SPONSORS

Conger Wealth Management | Southwest Power Pool | Tyson Foods, Inc.

Girls Pursuing Science (GPS)

GIRLS PURSUING SCIENCE (GPS) participants & sisters Alexis (8th grade) and Bronwyn (9th grade) Harris from Dover, AR created this fantastic VIDEO highlighting their experiences at the week-long summer camp.  Alexis & Bronwyn's feedback? GPS was "awesome" and they were "thrilled" with the caving adventure!  

Bronwyn was also one of 40+ girls who attended & enjoyed the SUMMER CULINARY INSTITUTE FOR YOUNG WOMEN hosted by the Arkansas Tech University Hospitality Program.  Arkansas Democrat-Gazette writer Jeannie Stone wrote THIS ARTICLE on the Institute.

WFA congratulates sister-foundation WOMEN'S FOUNDATION FOR A GREATER MEMPHIS - the TN Foundation received URBAN STRATEGIES inaugural Stellar Leader Award in recognition of their efforts to create social change and pave pathways for families to succeed.

We have been discovering so many fantastic programs & websites that support and encourage girls in ESTEM (economics, science, technology, engineering & mathematics) fields.  Of course we add them to the ESTEM RESOURCES section of our website and post about them on FACEBOOK.COM/GIRLSOFPROMISE, but we wanted to highlight a few of them here as well:

Google's 2011 GLOBAL SCIENCE FAIR top 3 winners were all girls between 13-18 whose projects spanned treatments for ovarian cancer to decreasing carcinogens in meats with marinades to the effect of environmental pollutants on asthma.

IWASWONDERING.ORG is a curious look at women's adventures in science from LIA's point of view.

PBS's SCI GIRLS website is interactive, customizable, full of online games as well as off-line projects - lots of which are created & uploaded by girls who use the website.

ForbesWoman announced their second annual TOP 100 WEBSITES FOR WOMEN late last month.  

Criteria for websites came down to informative and compelling content and user interface, engaged communities, and fresh female focus.  Other pluses include intelligence and fun, judges also looked for websites that have that "amorphous and often indefinable quality that inspires us to share--with our social networks and in e-mails and conversations with our moms, sisters, friends and colleagues."

We're so appreciative to WFA board member Marla Johnson Norris for organizing A GATHERING OF WOMEN earlier this month.  The guest list included members of or representatives of 14 Arkansas women's organizations including Arkansas Business Professional Women, Arkansas Women's Business Center, AWF, AWLF, AME, EWI, Hot Springs Women's Chamber, JLLR, NAWBO, UALR IT Women, WFA, Women's Fodservice Forum, and WIN.

Find out what all these groups do - and what the acronyms stand for - by checking out WFA's newest website resource: ARKANSAS WOMEN'S ORGANIZATIONS.