"Expect Respect in Your Relationships."
Based on SafePlace's "Expect Respect" school program, this presentation will address the promotion of safe and healthy relationships for all girls. A strong girl speaks her mind in a relationship, refuses to do things that make her uncomfortable, and expects people to treat her with respect - even when others might be angry or disappointed. The program's focus will be on helping girls communicate their feelings, increasing girls' sense of personal safety and building healthy coping skills. The SafePlace School-based education and training team will facilitate this discussion.

Speaker Bio

Randy Randolph is the School-Based Prevention Coordinator at SafePlace. Ms. Randolph has worked with SafePlace for over five years creating and providing educational programs on dating and sexual violence prevention and youth leadership. She has worked with thousands of youth and adults on promoting safe and healthy relationships through workshops and trainings. Two of these initiatives, SafeTeens and Heroes, are youth leadership training and service-learning programs which have been successful in engaging Austin youth as leaders in preventing dating and sexual violence. SafeTeens has received national recognition and funding from the National Center for Victims of Crime for its efforts in developing youth leaders. The SafeTeens Youth Leadership Program is an integral part of SafePlace’s comprehensive approach to preventing dating and sexual violence. Ms. Randolph earned a bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Communication Arts from San Francisco State University.

Back to Top

Mean Girls: Survival Strategies for Bullying, Gossip, and Other Hazards of Being a Middle School Girl.
Girl fighting is often a painful part of middle school. Girls may express their aggression and insecurities through hurtful words, gossip and bullying. An experienced counselor will lead a panel discussion with a group of young college women as they talk about how they made it through middle school, and how to keep friendships strong, honest and healthy.

Speaker Bios
		Suzanne Marie Fanger has a bachelor's degree in psychology and anthropology from Stanford University. She is currently pursuing graduate studies in Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. She has studied conflict resolution, gender and peer relationships extensively but currently focuses on relational aggression amongst girls. While teaching preschool in California, she developed and implemented an extensive social and emotional curriculum for addressing this alternative type of aggression in preschoolers. At present, she educates parents and teachers about preventing both the usage of relational aggression and victimization from it. Thursday, January 24 from 10 AM-11 AM at Bailey
		Barb Steinberg, a Licensed Master Social Worker, has been a presenter for over 8 years training schools and communities nationally and throughout Texas. Her workshop focus is educating and promoting the physical and mental health of our youth through workshops attended by youth and the adults who influence their lives. Barb's professional background includes conducting individual, group, and family counseling. She has worked within outpatient and inpatient facilities, assisting people with numerous issues, such as depression, eating disorders, physical and sexual abuse, alcohol and drug abuse, anxiety and adjustment disorders, brain injury and other neuropsychiatric disorders. In addition, Barb has conducted support group facilitation within public schools, specializing in adolescent issues. Barb has owned her own corporation and developed curriculum to enhance the development of young girls' life skills. Most recently, Barb was the Director of Programs for Girl's Empowerment Network of Austin (GENaustin) and is currently a consultant for GENaustin providing workshops on a variety of issues affecting adolescent girls Wednesday, Jan. 30 from 11:40 AM - 12:40 PM at Covington Tuesday, April 1 from 2-3 pm at Pflugerville Back to Top

Straight Talk from Teen Parents
Straight Talk from Teen Parents is a peer education program in which teen parents encourage middle and high school students to delay becoming parents until later in life. The No Kidding Peer Educators are a team of young mothers who travel to schools telling their stories and leading their peers in highly interactive activities designed to make visible the legal issues and other realities surrounding young unmarried parenting. This presentation is provided through a unique collaboration between GENaustin and Youth Launch.

Back to Top

The Roller Coaster Ride of Middle School Years: Coping with Stress and Success.
School, friends, hormones, dances, sports, parents, drugs, popularity, being thin. Yikes! How much pressure can young teens carry before it begins to affect their grades, their relationships and their futures? A counselor will facilitate this session to help parents and girls understand and manage the stresses in girls' lives.

Speaker Bio
		Having trained as a Journalist in Leeds University, England, Clare Nicholson used her time as a BBC broadcast Journalist to write about current and topical issues effecting teenagers in Britain. In 2003 she received an Honors degree in Psychology at the Open University in London where she went on to teach teenage girls in crisis regarding self-management and avoidance of anti-social behavior. During this time she also worked as an alcohol and drug counselor for the homeless in South England. Clare is currently receiving her Masters in Forensic Psychology from Argosy University in San Francisco and is working in collaboration with The University of Reno, Nevada on a psycho-educational program to educate and support parents and siblings of incarcerated youth.Clare is also currently involved in a new program, Family Connections, run by NAMI Austin, to help educate family members about Borderline Personality Disorder. From the beginning of her journalism and psychology career Clare has been a researcher and advocate for the education of Pre-Menstrual Syndrome to young girls and their mothers and the community as a whole. Thursday, February 21 at 8:00 AM - 8:45 AM at Canyon Ridge Back to Top

Protect Yourself
In the first part of this personal safety workshop, you will learn how to identify sexual predators, develop safety instincts and plan safety strategies. In the second part, you will learn simple techniques for physical resistance and other tips for general safety.

Speaker Bio
		Joy Williamson - Executive Director and Head Instructor of Sun Dragon Joy Williamson began her martial arts training in 1995, after taking a self-defense class. She studied with Sensei Suzanne Pinette at Sun Dragon, earning her black belt in Kyokushin Karate in 2000. Joy soon began teaching at Sun Dragon, then was requested to take over leadership of the school when her teacher retired. She has been the Executive Director and Head Instructor of Sun Dragon since 2004. Tuesday, February 12th at 10:21 AM - 11:07 AM at Kealing Back to Top

Media Critique of Music Lyrics; Positive Female Relationships; Living in a Multi-Cultural World

Media Critique of Music Lyrics: Staff from Latinitas magazine, the first digital magazine for young Latinas, present and deconstruct rock, rap, hip hop and country lyrics to address issues of sexism, racism and history. Girls will be encouraged to "rewrite" lyrics to their own liking.

Positive Female Relationships: The media is often pitting girl against girl in tv, movies and on the net. Lindsey Lohan hates Hillary Duff and other grudges are exaggerated and celebrated in mainstream media culture for some reason. This will be a workshop for girls to raise their awareness about models of female relationships in media and what we can do to change them for the better.

A Regular Girl in a Multicultural World: By 2020 one in every six teens will not be white, the former American majority.This girl talk presentation will encourage girls to address stereotypes head on in a fun and eye-opening activity.

Speaker Bios
Laura Donnelly & Alicia Rascon		Laura Donnely Upon graduating college in New Jersey, Laura Donnelly became an account executive for Ruder Finn Public Relations in their book publicity subsidiary. She continued to work in public relations for smaller firms in New York City, focusing mostly on book and non-profit promotion, until moving to Austin in 2000 to enroll in journalism graduate school. There, she co-founded Latinitas Magazine, a bilingual online magazine made for and by Latina youth. To be authentic, Latinitas developed outreach programming to cultivate contributions from Latina girls in and outside Austin. That programming includes after school journalism and technology clubs on six AISD campuses, workshops in the community and college internships.
Alicia Rascon Alicia Rascon was born in Jalisco, Mexico and was raised in El Paso, Texas. Upon graduating high school, Alicia entered the University of Texas at Austin where she earned a degree in Journalism with a minor in Mexican American studies. Alicia has been an associate director of communications at CASA of Travis County and currently is the assistant director of development at the Austin Children's Museum. She also manages the publication of Latinitas magazines, leads fundraising projects and coordinates Latinitas free monthly media workshops at the St. John's Branch of Austin's Public Library. Back to Top

Safety for wired girls
In the first part of this personal safety workshop, you will learn how to identify sexual predators, develop safety instincts and plan safety strategies on the streets as well as on the internet. Experts will provide awareness about sexual harassment, cyberbullying and cyberstalking.

Wednesday, March 19th at 8:15 AM - 9:15 AM at Martin

Back to Top

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Speakers: Lily Messina, General Manager of Austin Outlaws - Professional Women's Football Team
Carmen Maguire, Fire Fighter, Austin Fire Department
Leslie Hyland Rodgers, Singer,Actress,Artist

Speaker Bios
		Lily Messina: Born in San Antonio, Lily grew up in the Texas Hill Country and considers herself a small town girl with big city interests. She moved to Austin after graduation to attend college and is proud to call this great city home. Lily started her professional career at Sears, Roebuck & Co. where she worked as a project manager, eventually becoming certified as a Six Sigma Blackbelt. After 10 years with Sears she moved to Washington Mutual where she works as a manager in Global Planning & Strategy. Lily joined the Outlaws in 2001 during their inaugural year. In 2003 the Outlaws moved to their current league, the NWFA, and Lily stepped into the role of General Manager. This coming season will mark her eighth consecutive season playing football. She’s proud to already have a 7 year football career playing every snap in 63 consecutive games.
		Carmen Maguire: Carmen has been a fire fighter for the City of Austin for the past 12 years. She is currently assigned to recruiting, where she travels to educate people about being a fire fighter. She has been assigned to several fire houses around Austin and expects to return to Operations (fire fighting) in the next few weeks. Previous to AFD she worked for several small city fire departments. She attended Texas A&M for her fire fighter certification. She has also attended UTSA and now ACC where she is working on a Fire Science degree. She has two kids.
		Leslie Rodgers:Leslie is the Founder and Volunteer Executive Director of Symphony of Soul. A classically trained lyric coloratura soprano, Leslie is currently putting together a CD and is planning on giving a series of salon concerts in Texas, Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles, and other parts of the U.S. Leslie is a self-taught fine artist with her own line of hand-illustrated greeting cards and prints. Leslie grew up in Dallas, Texas; graduated from the Hockaday School; majored in Voice at The University of Texas in Austin; and continued her training as an actress and singer in New York, Paris and Los Angeles. Leslie is married to Dr. George Rodgers, a cardiologist and President and Chief Medical Officer of Biophysical Corporation.

Back to Top

Proud To Be Me
The bilingual radio host of the women's talk show, "The Ladies Room with Lolis," will discuss her identity as a Mexican-American, being a woman in male-dominated field, and her willingness to take risks and meet opportunities which helped her reach her ultimate goals. She will hold a Q & A for mothers and their daughters after the presentation.

Speaker Bio
		Lolis Garcia-Baab is a uniquely talented bilingual communications professional with a wide range of television and radio experience as a producer, writer, journalist, correspondent, and voice-over talent. Having lived in both Mexico and the United States, Lolis has a strong understanding of the Latino culture and its impact on mainstream society. Her life experiences and command of both the English and Spanish languages make her particularly adept at communicating in today's bilingual environment. A mother of two wonderful children and wife of 12-year NFL veteran Mike Baab, she is a business and community leader and a proud graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. Lolis is making her mark through The Ladies Room With Lolis. She began doing voice-over talent work in Austin while attending the University of Texas and continued this work upon her return to Austin in 1997. Among her many clients are Southwestern Bell, Bank One, and Taco Cabana. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Broadcast Journalism, Magna Cum Laude, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. After college, she quickly rose to the ranks of Executive Producer of the March of Dimes Telethon in Cleveland, Ohio, and Washington, D.C. She produced and directed several 24-hour live telethons and created 18 separate vignettes on the work of the March of Dimes. She also produced and directed all the commercials related to the fundraising efforts of the corporate sponsors included GE, Revco, Cadillac, and KFC. Thursday, March 20th 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM, at Mendez Middle School Back to Top