National Coalition of Girls' Schools Newsletter
IN THIS ISSUE
#DeclareYourAmbition: Encourage Young Women in Politics
2017 Student Leadership Conference in Australia
"Education Innovation" Articles Featured in IN THE NEWS Column
Highlights from the NCGS "Listening & Learning Tour"
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THE COALITION CONNECTION
September 23, 2016
Dear NCGS Community,
 
I am excited to announce the opening keynote speaker for the 2017 NCGS Conference, Education Innovation: Building Cultures of Creativity! Helping us kick off the conference will be the incredibly engaging Jaime Casap, Google's Chief Education Evangelist.
 
Working with the Google for Education Team, Jaime collaborates with school systems, educational organizations, and leaders focused on building innovation and iteration into education policies and practices. In addition, he addresses the power and potential of technology and the web as enabling and supporting tools in pursuit of promoting inquiry-driven, project-based learning models. Jaime is an internationally renowned speaker on the topics of education, technology, innovation, and Generation Z. He is also the proud father of an all-girls school graduate!
In addition to his role at Google, Jaime is part of the Phoenix Union School District Team that created the Phoenix Coding Academy, an inquiry-based high school designed with computer science as the core language students use in pursuit of the problems they want to solve. He is also an adjunct professor at Arizona State University, where he teaches classes on policy, innovation, and leadership.
 
We are thrilled to have Jaime kick off the conference! To learn more about this inspiring speaker, check out our brief video of Jaime sharing why it's important for educators to be innovative, especially for girls.
 

A head's up that the presenter call for proposals for the Education Innovation conference will open in a few weeks on October 21. Please look for the official announcement in The Coalition Connection.
 
We look forward to seeing you in DC!

Best Wishes,
Megan  

Megan Murphy 
Executive Director

#DeclareYourAmbition: Encourage Young Women in Politics

Women are half the population, but hold only 22% of the 500,000 elected offices in the United States. In order to have equal representation at every level of government, we need 140,000 more women in office.
 
Dedicated to building a movement of young women ready to own their fair share of political power, IGNITE has launched the #DeclareYourAmbition campaign. You can help take action by encouraging young women to stand up to declare their political ambition. The first step is to share the #DeclareYourAmbition online pledge with your school community. Your school can also support the movement on social media: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram -- use the hashtag, share the video below, and join the cause!
 

IGNITE president and founder, Anne Moses, is a proud alumna of NCGS member The Nightingale-Bamford School and an adjunct faculty member at the all-women's Mills College. Anne started IGNITE in 2010, to build political ambition when girls and young women are forming their identities and aspirations.
 
Girls' school graduates show more political engagement than their coed school peers, positioning our members to help plug the leaky political pipeline just as our schools are doing for women in STEM. IGNITE, which currently works with several NCGS member schools including Girls Athletic Leadership School (Denver), The Hockaday School, Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women's Leadership School, Ursuline Academy of Dallas, Young Women's College Preparatory Academy, Young Women's Leadership Academy at Arnold, and Young Women's Leadership Academy, offers a high school curriculum.

Click here to learn more about how your school community can get involved.

2017 Student Leadership Conference in Australia
NCGS invites member schools to nominate a student to attend the Student Leadership Conference (SLC) organized by our affiliate organization the Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia.
 
Two students in their 11th grade year are invited to attend next year's SLC at Bond University in Queensland, Australia, January 4-7, 2017. The selected NCGS representatives will join 165 fellow student delegates from Australia, New Zealand, UK and Asia. 
 
The Alliance has graciously offered to waive the registration fees, and NCGS will provide a scholarship to the two selected students to offset some of the costs of travel.
 
To learn how to nominate a representative from your school, download the SLC Information Letter and the SLC Application. The deadline to submit nominations is October 14, 2016. 


"Education Innovation" Articles Featured in IN THE NEWS Column
As we build up to the 2017 NCGS Conference, Education Innovation: Building Cultures of Creativity, our IN THE NEWS column [see left sidebar] currently features a selection of articles dedicated to education innovation in PK-12 schools and for girls and young women.


Highlights from the NCGS "Listening & Learning Tour"
Megan traveled to the West Coast last week to meet with other executive directors of independent school associations to discuss best practices and emerging issues. While there, she visited several member schools. Here's what she said from the road:
 
"'What can we be?' That is the question veteran public school educator Liz Hicks asked herself many years ago. Her answer is the newly opened Girls Academic Leadership Academy (GALA), the first all-girls school within the Los Angeles Unified School District. GALA will grow to serve students in grades 6-12 with a focus on STEM education and core values of excellence, leadership, and wellness.

First class of GALA students enjoying their new school.

Located two miles from the renowned Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, Santa Catalina School has developed a remarkable signature marine ecology research program that encourages its students to examine real-world problems and identify solutions through authentic scientific marine research.
 
I had the pleasure of visiting Academy of Our Lady of Peace (OLP) with our volunteer undergraduate intern, Katie Allen, who is a graduate of Santa Catalina School and a student at the University of San Diego. We were delighted to learn about the many ways OLP works to empower students, including hosting an Annual Women's Symposium where women leaders are invited to speak with students and share their wisdom on living a successful life filled with courage, curiosity, compassion, and a commitment to the greater global community."