NCGS Annual Conference 2010

A Call to Service

Louise S. McGehee School will host the 2010 National Coalition of Girls' Schools Annual Conference June 16-18. The conference will welcome educators and students from across the globe to a 3-day program in New Orleans.   The conference logo features artwork from the painting Starry Nights in a Devastated City by McGehee alumna Valerie Exnicios '09.

As part of the conference, attendees are encouraged to participate in two service learning opportunities centered around New Orleans.

For the first opportunity, NCGS and Louise S. McGehee School, have arranged with Liz McCartney, co-founder of St. Bernard Project and CNN Hero of the Year, for NCGS conference attendees to provide a day of service on Wednesday, June 16. Attendees will be assigned a hands-on project to complete, working alongside Liz and other current St. Bernard volunteers, to improve living conditions and prospects for families still suffering the devastating effects of Katrina, now five years on. Space will be limited so early sign up is encouraged. More details can be found on the NCGS Conference Website and interested participants can register there.

For our second opportunity, conference organizers have set their sites on rallying coalition girls in the most socially entrepreneurial ways possible to raise $15,000.00 to build one house - an "NCGS house" - for a St. Bernard family. If each NCGS member school raises just $100, we can make that goal and, in the process, make a strong, public statement about girls' schools commitment to service through social entrepreneurship. As Liz McCartney noted, "NCGS members will be able to make an incredible impact if every school does just a little bit." We agree. For more ideas about creative ways our students can help lead this effort, please visit the NCGS Conference Website.

Along with their other preparations for the conference, attendees have been asked to participate in the "Big Read" program, which is designed to encourage girls and school members to connect around some of the important themes that will shape the activities in NOLA - community, service, and social justice - The New Orleans Big Read provides a focused program of reading and related activities for NCGS students of all ages.

Here's how Girls Preparatory School (TN) is participating in the NCGS "Big Read" New Orleans:

"Our senior English teachers are using One Dead in the Attic by Chris Rose as a part of their curriculum second semester. We are embracing that unit and asking the senior team to use the NCGS/St. Bernard Project project as impetus. Linda Mines is the senior service coordinator and she, herself, had taken a Winterim to New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, so would be interested in doing the service part of this unit with the seniors. We will work to raise $100.00 for St. Bernard Project and, we hope to raise much more than that! I think the "unit" part of this plan - already in place - would provide a wonderful educational component and the service part would provide the heart of the project."

Jessica Good, Dean of Faculty