{"id":1490,"date":"2022-10-13T17:03:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-13T17:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/?p=1490"},"modified":"2025-01-16T17:05:48","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T17:05:48","slug":"empowering-girls-to-become-empowered-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/empowering-girls-to-become-empowered-women","title":{"rendered":"Empowering Girls to Become Empowered Women"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

October 11 marked the 10th anniversary of the International Day of the Girl, an observance day declared by the United Nations to address the challenges girls face and to promote girls\u2019 empowerment and the fulfilment of their human rights. Florida\u2019s St. Petersburg College<\/a> (SPC) celebrated the occasion by hosting the third annual Pearls & Portfolio Symposium on Oct. 7, in partnership with Pinellas County Schools, Girl Scouts of West Central Florida\u202fand Pace Center for Girls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s theme was \u201cEmpowered Girls Become Empowered Women.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SPC President Dr. Tonjua Williams kicked off the morning by taking selfies with the girls and welcoming them to the campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur girls are our future; therefore, career development is essential and builds a path to more productive lives for everyone,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women on the Way<\/a> Coordinator Shirley Crumbley said students shared that the symposium was inspirational, informative and encouraged them to become stronger women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women on the Way is an SPC initiative that empowers and inspires students to be resilient in achieving success. Program participants have access to academic advising, a clothing boutique, conferences and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Pearls and Portfolios Symposium is important because we\u2019re planting the seeds for future leaders and empowering our girls to know their worth and value,\u201d Crumbley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly 100 middle-school girls filled the Digitorum and shouted, \u201cI am not ashamed to be myself!\u201d during SPC Communications\/PR Coordinator Marilyn Shaw\u2019s keynote presentation, \u201cUnashamed Confidence.\u201d She motivated them to embrace their unique qualities \u2013 and perceived flaws \u2013 with love and grace, instead of criticism and judgment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMiddle school can be a tough time for young girls, and I remember it being challenging for me,\u201d Shaw said. \u201cMy goal was to encourage them to invest in their mental health and self-esteem now, so they can have the tools to be successful later.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From financial literacy to coding, the girls participated in a variety of workshops, including Frame Your Future, STEM Lab and Kidzonomics Budgeting Session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eight Grader Makala Adams said after this event she felt empowered to tell her friends to not be judgmental about themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis event was good and I enjoyed all the speakers,\u201d Adams said. \u201cMy favorite part was the LED STEM session and Frame Your Future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article originally appeared\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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View Source<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October 11 marked the 10th anniversary of the International Day of the Girl, an observance day declared by the United Nations to address the challenges girls face and to promote girls\u2019 empowerment and the fulfilment of their human rights. Florida\u2019s St. Petersburg College (SPC) celebrated the occasion by hosting the third annual Pearls & Portfolio Symposium on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1493,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"post_tag":[],"class_list":["post-1490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1494,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1490\/revisions\/1494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_tag?post=1490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}