Press Reader: Girls Inc. schol­ars earn fund­ing

What began as a cre­at­ive chal­lenge at the annual Girls Inc. Toul­min Found­a­tion Scholar Din­ner became an unex­pec­ted invest­ment in the next gen­er­a­tion, inspired by the ideas of Girls Inc. schol­ars them­selves.

Ten years ago, the Vir­ginia B. Toul­min Found­a­tion inves­ted in Girls Inc. of Sara­sota County by estab­lish­ing the Toul­min Schol­ars Fund. The fund provides girls pur­su­ing post­sec­ond­ary edu­ca­tion with addi­tional fin­an­cial assist­ance, empower­ing them to focus on their edu­ca­tion and future while work­ing toward gradu­at­ing debt-free.

Schol­ars rep­res­ent­ing the pro­gram’s first dec­ade gathered recently for the annual Scholar Din­ner with Vir­ginia B. Toul­min Found­a­tion trust­ees Bill Vil­la­franco, Alex­an­der Sanger and Wal­ter Mon­taigne. Girls Inc. Sara­sota County pres­id­ent and CEO Angie Stringer also atten­ded, along with board mem­bers Jim Rolfes, vice chair; Dr. LaShawn Frost, past chair; and Kay Math­ers, a mem­ber of the Girls Inc. national board.

Vil­la­franco asked the schol­ars to work together to identify an unmet need at Girls Inc. and develop a pro­gram that could help fill the gap. Each group selec­ted a spokes­per­son to present its col­lect­ive idea, with the win­ning pro­gram receiv­ing fund­ing from the Found­a­tion.

After hear­ing both present­a­tions, the trust­ees and Girls Inc. lead­er­ship con­cluded that each pro­posal met the chal­lenge’s cri­teria and exceeded expect­a­tions. Rather than select­ing one win­ner, the Found­a­tion sur­prised the schol­ars by announ­cing that both pro­grams would receive fund­ing.

“Vir­ginia taught me that true phil­an­thropy goes bey­ond the fin­an­cial gift. It is about show­ing up, rolling up your sleeves and becom­ing a famil­iar face,” Vil­la­franco said. “These schol­ars under­stand the needs of the girls because they have lived the Girls Inc. exper­i­ence. Their ideas deserve to be heard, developed and put into action.”

The first ini­ti­at­ive, “Read, Write, Rise,” addresses the grow­ing con­cern that some chil­dren are pro­gress­ing through school without strong found­a­tional read­ing and writ­ing skills. The pro­gram will pair middle school stu­dents with younger par­ti­cipants, cre­at­ing oppor­tun­it­ies for lit­er­acy devel­op­ment, peer ment­or­ship and lead­er­ship growth.

The second ini­ti­at­ive, the “GI Film Lab,” will intro­duce girls to film­mak­ing and emer­ging tech­no­logy. Under the guid­ance of exper­i­enced pro­fes­sion­als, par­ti­cipants will learn how to develop their own stor­ies and pro­duce ori­ginal films using tra­di­tional pro­duc­tion skills and respons­ible arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence tools.

‘Strong, smart and bold’ mis­sion

Both pro­grams reflect the Girls Inc. mis­sion to inspire all girls to be strong, smart and bold while giv­ing them a mean­ing­ful voice in shap­ing the oppor­tun­it­ies avail­able to them. The ini­ti­at­ives will also help par­ti­cipants develop lit­er­acy, com­mu­nic­a­tion, lead­er­ship, cre­at­ive and tech­nical skills that are increas­ingly import­ant in today’s chan­ging work­force.

“Vir­ginia B. Toul­min’s name will forever sym­bol­ize oppor­tun­ity and innov­a­tion within our organ­iz­a­tion,” Stringer said. “Invest­ing in girls is an invest­ment in the future. These new ini­ti­at­ives will help our girls build prac­tical skills, explore new pos­sib­il­it­ies and recog­nize the power of their own ideas.”

The Toul­min Found­a­tion’s rela­tion­ship with Girls Inc. extends bey­ond an annual schol­ar­ship. It rep­res­ents a con­tin­ued invest­ment in girls dur­ing crit­ical stages of their edu­ca­tional and per­sonal devel­op­ment.

Each scholar attend­ing the din­ner also received a copy of “Vir­ginia B. Goes to the Sym­phony” by Kevin Pease, the first book in an eight-book his­tor­ical fic­tion series inspired by the child­hood of Vir­ginia B. Toul­min.

Girls Inc. of Sara­sota County pro­grams provide girls with sup­port­ive rela­tion­ships, oppor­tun­it­ies and exper­i­ences that help them grow into healthy, edu­cated and inde­pend­ent adults. For more inform­a­tion, visit girlsinc­srq.org.