Girls in sixth grade invited to Sister-to-Sister Summit
The challenges facing middle-school girls haven’t changed much in the past 17 years. Concerns about relationships and body image continue to cause angst among 11 to 13 year olds.
With the popularity of social media, though, girls are subject to the expressions of their peers at all times.
“It’s tough to be a middle-school girl,” said Mary Jo Podgurski, who, as a nurse educator and the founder and president of the Academy for Adolescent Health, has talked with and counseled countless students. “Mean-spirited stuff always existed. But, if I was a girl in seventh grade and another girl didn’t like me, I would go home and she had no impact on me. Now, with social media, they always have access to each other.”
At this year’s Sister-to-Sister Summit, Washington County girls in sixth grade will have a chance to talk with each other and older peer facilitators about these issues. In its 17th year, the summit, at Citizens Library, Washington, is a free, overnight “lock-in” beginning at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 18, and continuing through 9 a.m. Sunday.
“Disappearing words,” in which participants write down negative phrases and watch them disappear, is a regular summit activity.
Topics of discussion and activities will include peer pressure, decision making, creating positive friendships, body image, bullying, personal safety and self-defense and dating and relationships.
“I’ve trained a lot of kids over the years,” said Podgurski, who is helping organize the event with coordinator Kathy Sabol. “It’s not about telling them what to do, but drawing them out and letting them speak.”
Keeping with this year’s theme of “No Mean Girls,” the overnight conference will be led by young women in high school who have been trained to facilitate discussions.
“We want to try to break up the cliques,” said Sabol. “The girls have small-group discussions or an activity, then switch groups for something else. And they don’t have to worry that they won’t get to spend time with their friends. They will have plenty of time to be together.”
Podgurski and Sabol said the conference empowers girls and helps them be prepared for issues they may later face.
“We want them to take this back to their schools and their lives,” said Sabol, a member of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and executive director of the Washington County Bar Association. “If something happens, if they’re ridiculed on social media, they’ll have a plan.”
Part of an international series of summits, the conference is sponsored and funded locally by the Washington branches of AAUW, Business and Professional Women and Washington Health System Teen Outreach, and supported by Citizens Library and Domestic Violence Services of Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Sabol and Podgurski have had numerous girls tell them that the summit was a positive influence in their lives.
“We’re going to keep making it happen. If we can even just help one girl, we’re going to do that,” said Sabol.
“We want girls to know you’re an individual,” added Podgurski. “No matter what you’re gender, if you want something, you should go after it.”
Facilitator and participant applications are available at www.sistertosistersummmit.org. Facilitator applications are due by Tuesday. Participant applications are due by Nov. 14. No late applications will be accepted.
Facilitators must attend a training session from 6 to 8 p.m. Nov. 14 at the Washington Health System Teen Outreach Center.
For information or to support the summit, contact Sabol at katsabol@comcast.net or 724-225-6710, or Podgurski at podmj@healthyteens.com or 412-877-4906.