Girls Striving to Thrive

It’s that time of year again! The Young Women’s Empowerment Foundation and State Assembly Member Cheryl R. Brown recently hosted the second annual “Girl’s Talk II Spring Conference” at San Bernardino Valley College. The down-to-earth discussions were geared towards the young girls in attendance from ages 13-21 and offered inspiration and information about pressing topics including life choices, health, self esteem, sexting, bullying, dating violence, human trafficking, dressing for success and more. All afternoon, guest speakers engaged the girls in fundamental discussions and casual conversations about all of these topics. Seventeen year old Erriycka Slaughter, a sophomore at Eisenhower High School expressed her opinion about the discussions that took place at the Girl’s Talk II Spring conference, sharing, “I believe that the topics that were spoken about are relatable, because some girls need to know about them. Not every girl knows about these things.” Each speaker at the event brought forth life-changing, vital information and life lessons. It was an environment that allowed the girls to be comfortable enough to share their opinions and ideas openly. One specific inspirational speaker, local recording artist Kisha Smith brought forth a moving speech about making the right life choices. In closing she stated, “I implore you all to learn from your experiences, and to make the choice to do more than survive, but to live.” The founder and President of the Young Women of Empowerment Foundation and local San Bernardino resident, Gwendolyn Rodgers felt that the event was a great success and that all of the hard work that was put into the conference by the volunteer staff paid off. “We had 100 girls in attendance last year. And the community asked us to push for more girls so our goal was 200, and we’ve more than doubled our numbers this year.” Next year, the conference will be held at a new location with new topics and fresh faces, but it will have the same goal: to empower the young women in the community, ages 13-21 to excel.