Seventh grade girls receive encouragement at annual empowerment summit

Simren Shah

Associate Features Editor   

On Friday October 26^th, Millersville University hosted the annual Teenage Girls Empowerment Summit. The summit kicked off with breakfast and speakers. The speakers included Tina Wells, (CEO and founder of Buzz Marketing Group), Wayne Mutata (founder of ITrain Studio), and others. Each of the speakers provided encouragement to the girls and answered questions. Wells described how she started her own business in high school. Mutata, originally from Zimbabwe, recounted his journey to America to become a fitness instructor for women. Both speakers relayed their struggles alongside their successes to encourage the girls to work hard to achieve their goals. After the conclusion of the speeches, lunch was provided at the Upper Deck. Following lunch, the girls broke into small groups and went into different classrooms to participate in activities.

In one of the classrooms, a speaker described growing up in a complicated home and how she achieved success despite that. The girls each completed a brief questionnaire which determined their confidence levels. They were told that their opinions of themselves were more important than the opinions of others and that it was okay to struggle sometimes. The second activity the girls in this group participated in consisted of writing down something mean someone said to them on a piece of scrap paper and throwing it in the trash. The liberation on the girls’ faces was evident as the speaker passed the trashcan around and they crumpled up and discarded their papers.

The summit gave the girls a taste of being on college campus as well as an opportunity to meet alumni who also attended the event. The girls were encouraged to take notes and ask questions. The speakers, chaperones, teachers, and alumni worked together to positively impact the young girls who attended the summit. Hopefully they all left Millersville University with the mentality that they have what it takes to be successful. Perhaps some of the girls will return as students someday and volunteer at future summits.