Rosie's Girls Coming To The NEK

Details: Created on Tuesday, 09 February 2016 21:27; Written by Kaitlyn Manktelow

LYNDON- A branch of Rosie's Girls summer camp is coming to Lyndon Center and their purpose is to teach girls more than just how to roast marshmellows. They will be empowering girls and giving them leadership skills.

Emma Hansen, the director for Rosie's Girls in the North East Kingdom has been trying to get this branch placed here for almost two years. She continued to work for it because she feels that girls as a whole, particularly in the Northeast Kingdom need to be empowered.

"We are seeing increasingly that girls are less likely to raise their hands in class and less likely to pursue aspirations and opportunities that they have," says Hansen.

The camp will use STEM teaching methods, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education. This method will teach the girls skills in things such as welding and engineering. The intent of using this sort of teaching method is it will allow the girls to branch out and shadow sucessful women in fields that are predominately male.

Hansen believes that no field is just for one gender. "I came back here to work and I know that these girls need strong, positive female role models in their lives and with Rosie's they get to go out and see sucessful women working in fields that may not be something they thought they could do," Hansen says.

For future camper, Grace Clark, in addition to learning leadership skills she hopes to feel more confident with herself. "I struggle with confidence in my physical appearance and I know that Ms. Hansen has helped me alot in the past and I'm really excited to get more help with my confidence," syays Clark.

Ally Corrow who will be a counsellor in training at Rosie's this summer says, she hopes to become a role model for some of the younger campers, just like their mascot Rosie the Riveter is. "I think it's very important to empower woman. Especially women in society who don't have that sense of empowerment, who struggle with not being comfortable to become all these 'manly jobs.'," says Corrow. She also adds that "Empowerment also comes from happiness and just being able to love who you are."

This summer the girls will spend time at Thaddeus Stevens School, Lyndon Institute, St. Johnsbury Academy and even The University of Vermont.Hansen says she has receieved an "overwhelming" amount of community support for the camp. Perhaps the amount of support is why the camp is almost completely booked for this coming summer. Anyone looking for more information concerning the summer camp should call The Thaddeus Stevens School at (802)626-0370.

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