Gossip Girl.
Not just a set of novels or a television series that shows an exaggerated interpretation of “Manhattan’s elite” at an all-girls’ independent school on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Truth be told, the fictional Constance-Billard School for Girls is based on my real all-girls’ independent K-12 school on the Upper East Side (but its name is “a secret I’ll never tell” – unless you can figure out the clues I sprinkle throughout the piece).
While some of the women I called my classmates had been at the school since kindergarten and had mothers who attended the school as well, I entered in the 7th grade as a financial aid student through an academic program that targets high academically-achieving students of color in New York City public schools.
My dream school as a 12-year-old applying to these independent schools was co-ed and on a campus that housed huge fields for their sports team, exactly what you would see on Friday Night Lights.
However, the program required all students to apply to a single-sex school, something my father was truly ecstatic about and something I cried about (I was very boy crazy at 12).
Due to my birthday being in September and my mother signing me up for pre-kindergarten at the age of 3, most schools wanted me to repeat the 6th grade so that my age could align with my future classmates.
However, the all-girls’ school that I did not want to apply to was the only one that decided to take a chance on me and allowed me to continue onto the 7th grade.
The months leading up to my entrance through the blue doors of the famed school felt like a crash course: having to pick up books that I never imagined having access to, preparing for the academic differences between the public school I was so used to and the independent school that housed women whose worlds I would not understand at first (and at times still do not), and buying a uniform that was beyond any clothing budget I could imagine.
However, by the time I graduated from the school, I wore my plaid blue, white, and grey skirt that always would just make the length cut-off with my head held high (each all-girls’ school had their own unique skirt).
As the co-head of tour guides my senior year, I received many questions from admitted students regarding my experience, many of which oozed with confusion and concerns.
Well, now is as a good a time as ever to pass along the advice that came from these conversations.
Here’s what’s it really like to go to an all girls prep school:
1. Yes, you will interact with males.
You do not move to another planet.
I will admit that my heart did flutter whenever I saw someone of the opposite sex; however, I think that happens whenever you are going through your first set of crushes.
2. Going off of that, take advantage of the opportunities given to interact with your brother school(s).
It is nice to have friends from there when you are forced to do plays and community service together.
3. You will not feel uncomfortable if and when you decide to go to a co-ed college.
If anything, I felt more confident.
I had strengthened my voice during my 6 years at my school.
I knew how to speak up and to speak with confidence.
Just because some testosterone was added to the mix when I started college did not mean I forgot how to raise my hand and share my opinion.
4. You will get many questions asking if you are now an uber feminist.
Always say, “Hell yeah. We never shave our legs, burn bras, never wear make-up, and you don’t even want to know what happens at school.”
You won’t get the dumb question again. Only a face of mixed emotions.
5. Be grateful that you are in a place that knows the importance of women in this world.
Faculty and staff go above and beyond to ensure your success because they know how much you are needed.
6. Also be grateful that you can shout about needing a tampon or pad without the confused, horrified, or joking reaction of men.
Be free, and happily catch that tampon that is thrown across the room.
7. You will become attached to your uniform skirt.
You will never want to throw it out.
You will take it with you to college and most likely use it as part of a costume.
8. I graduated with a class of 38 other women, and with such a small group, you are bound to know A LOT about each other.
You all may be at very different stages of our personal lives.
Do not feel as though you are lagging or are way ahead.
Everyone goes at their own pace, and it just may intensified because you see the same small group every day.
9. Almost everyone at your school will become a familiar face.
Be happy about it, especially when the cute little kindergarten student waves every time she sees you.
10. There are many moments when you will feel a lot of love accompanied by hugs.
11. Remember the moment you enter the blue doors (or whatever color your school’s doors are) as well as the moment you leave them behind. The experience you gain at an all-girls’ school is a very unique one that can never be replicated.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: William Murphy/Flickr (CC by-SA 2.0)
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Police Body Camera Footage Released In Alabama Students Rough Arrest Case
Tuscaloosa police released officer body camera footage of the cop at the center of a controversy that has been roiling the west Alabama city since early November.
The officer and a group of other cops conducted a rough arrest on three University of Alabama students after the police were called to an off campus apartment in the early hours of Nov. 8 because the students were allegedly playing music too loudly.
The incident came to light after the student newspaper, the Crimson White obtained and published a series of brutal cell phone videos.
The videos show multiple Tuscaloosa police officers grab three students out of an off campus apartment and throw them onto the concrete hallway where they are arrested and one is tased and beaten with a nightstick.
READ MORE: Videos Surface From Rough Arrest, Tasering Of Alabama Students After LSU Victory
Tuscaloosa’s chief of police Steve Anderson quickly called for an internal investigation of the three main officers involved and put them all on paid administrative leave while the matter was being looked into.
WATCH: Tuscaloosa Police Storm Into Dorm And Arrest Three Students, Taser One
“Based on what I’ve seen, the individual did not have to exit the apartment,” Anderson said according to AL.com.
When he was asked if the officers had the right to go inside of the apartment, Anderson responded, “Based on what I’ve seen, no.”
While the footage released Wednesday didn’t show anything “earth shattering” according to Anderson, it was still important to make public the footage for the sake of transparency.
WATCH: Police Body Camera Footage of Tuscaloosa Rough Arrests
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A Youth Mind: How These Texas Teens Want To Change The African Narrative
Campbell Erickson is a connector of young people.
Campbell Erickson is resourceful.
Campbell Erickson embodies entrepreneurialism.
Campbell Erickson is 16 years old.
Last summer, Erickson sent out a call to action to fellow Austin, TX teenagers who follow him on his Instagram account. The call was for people who wanted to make an impact and to change a particular narrative around the nascent nation of South Sudan.
But this isn’t just about Erickson. In response to his call, six Austin based teenagers, attending different high schools and varying in age have come together to start a project they call “A Youth Mind.”
“‘A Youth Mind’ comes from the idea that literally the minds of youth, I feel personally, aren’t recognized as much as they should be this day and age, especially when it comes to documentation and recognition of places, people and culture,” Erickson said. “The mind of a kid who is growing up is so open and so creative.”
But that’s just the name. It was the end goal of changing the conversation around different parts of the world that attracted the others to the project.
“Ignorance, to me, is my greatest fear. If you have resources and have things available to you, you have to choose to be ignorant. If you can choose to understand people and choose just to know things, why would you choose not too? Team member, Sophia Alami-Nassif, 17, said.
“People think you’re doing this cute little project. It made me want to work harder to make people understand. To almost prove to people we are not that little kid project.”
The goal of A Youth Mind is to combat ignorance through education. Through an Indiegogo campaign that raised $1,700, the A Youth Mind team is set to purchase disposable cameras that they will send through their NGO Austin-based partner, Lone Star-Africa Works, to South Sudan.
Once the cameras make it to the young people in South Sudan communities, they will use the cameras to shoot raw footage of their homes, their schools, their families and their friends.
Then they will send the photos back to Austin to the A Youth Mind team. The goal will be to distribute the photos as print books made through a platform called Weeva that will be sold to buy more cameras. The photos will also be distributed to various traditional and social media channels for maximum exposure.
After South Sudan, the team’s hope is to expand to other countries.
“We want to increase awareness using the raw image of a country like South Sudan instead of the Western media taking the photo.” Erickson said. “The final goal is to create an exchange between communities because we want young people all over the world to grow up with this awareness of other young people, this awareness of other cultures, of other places.”
As young people trying to combat ignorance in other young people, the A Youth Mind team is receiving a different kind of education outside of traditional schooling.
This project is not a school project. It is not a charity. It is a global humanitarian partnership started by young people who are passionate and want to remain engaged with the world.
“I actually believe in this. We are receiving validation from the feedback we are getting, and I don’t necessarily feel like you always get that in school,” Alami-Nassif said. “I feel like you are just expected to show up and do a task. The thing about this project is that it focuses on humanity, and I think school is really lacking that.”
The experience in entrepreneurial leadership and global awareness that the team is gaining cannot be quantified in a grade.
Nor can the ‘real world’ aspect be quantified, which was apparent when the team found themselves representing A Youth Mind at a booth at SXSW Eco in October in Austin, TX.
“It was humbling. It was a step into reality,” Ori Green, 16, said. “It wasn’t necessarily condescending, but you could see how being a kid and trying to start something like this, you get those natural ‘arts and crafts’ kind of feels to it. People think you’re doing this cute little project. It made me want to work harder to make people understand. To almost prove to people we are not that little kid project.”
Some SXSW Eco conference-goers did understand. Using a whiteboard, dry erase markers and a goal to spark conversation, the A Youth Mind team engaged conference participants by asking them to write the first word that came to mind when they think of Africa.
“We were going for stereotypes and things you think of when don’t really think of Africa. But we got so many amazing ideas and people’s thoughts,” Joshua Tsang, 16, said.
SXSW Eco was a pivotal reality check for the team.
“Afterward, I had to take a step back and think, ‘Woah, this is kind of actually going somewhere big.’ It was the first real deep breath of actuality for this,” Green said.
While the future looks bright for A Youth Mind, the project is not without its challenges. But with true entrepreneurial resourcefulness and dogged determination, the A Youth Mind team is accepting challenges in stride.
“One challenge is how do we get cameras through customs in South Sudan? We have a solution and this is working with churches over there to help get the cameras through.” Erickson said.
Flexibility, determination and a collaborative team will get the first round of photos back from South Sudan in the early part of 2016.
The goal is for the first book to be published by the summer of 2016.
“Our plan is to execute this first project and see what went good and what went bad and how we can make it better,” Green said. “How can we do it cheaper, more efficiently. Then after we do that we have a world of options. Literally.”
Photo Credits: Submitted.
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German Language Society: Germany’s Word Of The Year Is “Refugees”
The German word “Flüchtlinge,” translated to mean refugees, was selected by the Society for the German Language as its Word of the Year after nearly 12 months of roughly one million newcomers flowing into the western European country, Reuters reported Friday. “Flüchtlinge” is derived from the German verb “fluechten” — meaning “to flee” — and the… Read More
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