NM Girls Institute Leadership Camp
June 5-9, 2011
Socorro, NM

Designed to help teenage girls gain personal power, build self-confidence and self-esteem, the NM Girls Institute is offering a five-day camp that:

• Promotes positive relationships
• Enhances self-esteem and self-worth
• Encourages setting and achieving goals
• Inspires self-awareness
• Celebrates the future

Dates: Sunday, June 5 through Thursday, June 9, 2011
Time: Sunday Check In between 2:00-3:30 p.m.
Thursday Check Out at 3:00 p.m.

Where: New Mexico Tech
801 Leroy Place in Socorro

Limited to 25 girls, our focus is to bring awareness to living a healthy and balanced life while achieving goals and serving the community. The camp will incorporate personal reflection, engaging hands-on workshops and experiential opportunities in a safe and supportive environment. Our staff and volunteers are talented and committed women from the community who care about New Mexico girls and the challenges they face.

Application Process:
Guidance counselors from around the state may nominate students from 8th or 9th grade who may benefit from this type of program. The students then fill out an application and an essay to return to the guidance counselor. The guidance counselor will then mail the completed packets back to the NM Girls Institute. Girls will be notified of their acceptance and further paperwork such as health forms, permission slips/waivers, surveys, etc. are then mailed to the girls with deadlines for submission.

Tuition:

• $10.00 non-refundable application fee (due with application)
• $10.00 supply fee (due April 1, 2011)
  
• $80.00 room and board fee (due May 5, 2011)

Room and Board:
Girls will be residing at Driscoll Hall dorms on campus. Rooms open to an interior hallway and bathrooms will be shared. Each room has its own sink, 2 twin beds, 2 closets, and 2 desks. Girls will be assigned a roommate. Adults will be housed in the same wing as the girls. Driscoll Hall is accessible only with a key card.

Girls are provided with all meals and snacks throughout the week.

Financial Aid:
The NM Girls Institute will provide a minimum of 5 scholarships for those who need assistance with the cost of room and board. The Application also has a scholarship request form.

For an application or more information, please contact Kathi Brown at 505-222-6600 or 1-800-432-9168 or info@nmgirlsintitute.org

The NM Girls Institute is a program of the NM Commission on the Status of Women -- YOUR state agency for women and girls.

From IMPACT Personal Safety

Are you familiar with IMPACT Personal Safety? If not, you should be. Check them out at www.impactpersonalsafety.org Look for them at the 2010 SLAM Conference !

In the meantime, I received an email from their Executive Director this week highlighting the suggestions to consider for keeping safe. Follow these no-nonsense words of wisdom from an organization that is truly invested in the safety and well-being of New Mexicans.

IMPACT Personal Safety's SAFETY CHOICES

General Awareness

1. Trust your intuition. Believe yourself in the moment about whether a situation is safe or not.
2. Be aware of the people around you and how you are feeling about them.
3. Use all your sensese to be aware of what is going on around you.

Awareness in your Home

1. Think befoer you give out personal information or information about your daily routine.
2. When you go somewhere outside of your daily routine, consider letting someone know where you are going and when you expect to return.
3. If you are going to arrive home after dark, consider keeping an outside light on.
4. Note that people can see in through windows, especially at night when lights are on. Consider closing the blinds or curtains.
5. Decide how you want to answer the door. (Do you check the peephole? Should children be allowed to answer? Do you ask service personnel for ID?)
6. Do not depend on your dog for more than an alarm.
7. If you hear a prowler, turn on your outside lights and call the police. Alert your neighbors.

Awareness in your Car

1. Locate your keys before you go outside of your car.
2. Lock your car when you leave it.
3. Be aware of your gas tank level; refill it before you risk running out.
4. Keep all valuable out of sight and avoid leaving personal information in open view.
5. If you have car trouble, don't accept help from anyone you have a bad feeling about.
6. If you discover you are being followed, drive to an open business or a public place. Wait to go home until you are not being followed or have received help.
7. If anyone demands your car from you, it is safest to cooperate. Keep the assailant informed as you move quickly and deliberately. ("Okay, let me unbuckle my seat belt" and "My child is in the back seat, please let me get him out.)
8. If you are driving someone home, offer to wait until s/he has entered the house before leaving.

Want more SAFETY CHOICES.... visit www.impactpersonalsafety.org/tips.html

This is perfect!

"Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That's what little girls are made of; the heck with sugar and spice. " -- Bethany Hamilton, greatest female surfer of our time!

"For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For beautiful hair, let a child run his/her finger through it once a day. For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone." -- Audrey Hepburn

These thoughts are truly a gift. Our beauty comes from our actions, not the store.

The Power of Friendship

"There's not a word yet for old friends who've just met. Part heaven, part space, or have I found my place? You can just visit, but I plan to stay. I'm going to go back there someday." - I'm Going to Go Back There Someday

I just read a book called "Before You Leap: A Frog's-Eye View of Life's Greatest Lesson" by Kermit the Frog. Sure, laugh. He's a muppet for goodness sakes! But he had some wise words to pass along.. including the 14 steps of Friendship. And yes, the truth is, friends ARE easy to make once you know the rules. And it takes more than just a click on the Facebook screen to have a friend!

The rules are:
1) Be Happy with Who YOU Are.
2) Begin EVERY Interaction in a Friendly Manner
3) Be Genuinely Interested in OTHERS
4) Let the OTHER Person Do Most of the Talking
5) Show Respect to EVERYONE
6) Expect the BEST from Others
7) Appeal to Others' HIGHER Motives
8) Be Open to NEW Things
9) Have a Sense of HUMOR
10) Be HONEST
11) AVOID Arguments.
12) ADMIT Mistakes
13) Be Quick to FORGIVE
14) Give FREELY of Yourself and Your Talents

And in the end, the little green frog says, "When you can give your time and your talent to others without expecting anything in return, you're the best kind of friend."

Who knew someone's who breath smelled like flies would be so wise?

Get Outside Day! 2010 – Youth Nationwide Get Outside and Celebrate Nature - Children

Get Outside Day! 2010 – Youth Nationwide Get Outside and Celebrate Nature - Children & Nature Network (C&NN)

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Whale or a Mermaid?

Recently, in a large city in Australia, a poster featuring a young, thin and tan woman appeared in the window of a gym. It said: "This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?"

A middle-aged woman, whose physical characteristics did not match those of the woman on the poster, responded publicly to the question posed by the gym.

"To Whom It May Concern:

Whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, sea lions, curious humans)
They have an active sex life, get pregnant and have adorable baby whales.
They have a wonderful time with dolphins stuffing themselves with shrimp.
They play and swim in the seas, seeing wonderful places like Patagonia, the Bering Sea,
and the coral reefs of Polynesia.
Whales are wonderful singers and have been recorded for CDs.
They are incredible creatures and virtually have no predators, other than humans.
They are loved, protected and admired by almost everyone in the world.

Mermaids don't exist.
If they did exist, they would be lining up outside the offices of Argentiean psychoanalysts due to identity crisis. Fish or human?
They don't have a sex life because they kill men who get too close to them.
Therefore, they don't have kids either.
Not to mention, who wants to get close to a girl who smells like a fish store?

The choice is perfectly clear to me: I want to be a whale.

P.S. We are in an age when media puts into our heads that idea that only skinny people are beautiful, but I prefer to enjoy an ice cream with my kids, a good dinner with a man who makes me shiver, and a piece of chocolate with my friends.

With time, we gain weight because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that when there is no more room, it distributes out the rest of our bodies. So we aren't heavy, we are enormously cultured, educated and happy. Beginning today, when I look at my butt in the mirror, I will think, "Good grief, look how smart I am!"