More Than Me

Katie in Liberia with one of the girls

Back in February, I got an email with the subject, “Not a super hero or a celebrity just a girl.” The email was from a clearly passionate and inspiring woman named Katie Meyler who had seen my video on YouTube, recognized our shared passion for girls' education and wanted to reach out to me. She told me a little about her organization, More Than Me. “I live and work in Liberia, West Africa which just so happens to be the third poorest country in the world,” she explained. “It's kinda nuts—60% of the kids are out of school and more than half of them are girls.”

What More Than Me does for these girls, she told me, is get them off the streets and into school. More Than Me especially targets child prostitutes—girls who have no other option than to sell their bodies as young as nine or ten years old—or girls who have a high risk of being pulled into that life. Indeed, as many as 80% of girls in Liberia resort to prostitution to survive (according to gvnet.com).

There is only one government school in West Point, the 75,000 person Liberian slum in which More Than Me works. Even when families can afford to send their daughters to school, the girls often face various forms of abuse and exploitation, including “sex for grades.” Because of this problem, More Than Me not only helps the girls get an education, but it is also working to provide them with a safe place to go after school. In this center, girls will learn how to bead, sew, bake, and other skills that could help them make money.

I have stayed in touch with Katie since February, and now I am participating as an outreach coordinator for their biggest project ever: More Than Me is a contestant in this year's Chase American Giving Awards competition, and they have the chance to win $1 million. With this kind of money, More Than Me could help thousands of Liberian girls work toward a better future—one that does not include prostituting themselves at a very young age.

This girl started selling herself at age 10, and she's
now in 2nd grade and top of her class!

The way More Than Me wins is simple: they need the most votes. To vote, you can visit voteabigail.org, which will direct you to the Chase voting page. All you have to do is sign into your Facebook account, click the blue “vote” button, allow application, go to app, then click the same blue vote button one more time. It seems a little convoluted, but the whole process takes only thirty seconds. That is a small price to pay to raise your voice against the injustices suffered by Abigail—the face of More Than Me's campaign—and thousands of other girls just like her.

More Than Me is a relatively new organization—about three years old. But already Katie and the team at More Than Me have made an enormous impact in the lives of so many vulnerable girls. It is easy to see that with a little help, they could make a truly incredible difference in Liberia and in the world.

“I don't know much about you,” Katie ended the email back in February. “But it is obvious we share a passion for girls' education.” Educating girls is one of the most important things we can do to build a brighter future for everyone on the planet. Abigail and the other girls in West Point may be thousands of miles away, but they are just like you and me. The only difference is that because of where they were born, they may never be educated, never even have a clean glass of drinking water or a satisfying meal, without having to sell their bodies on the streets of Liberia. I do not think this is okay. Katie doesn't think this is okay. Thousands of people are standing up, writing “I am Abigail”on their foreheads, because they do not think this injustice is okay. We all need to come together to take a stand. What will you do?

VOTE on Facebook.
READ more about More Than Me and the Chase American Giving Awards.
WATCH the video that will air on NBC on December 8th.
JOIN Abigail's Tribe and help us get the most votes! Email pam@morethanme.org with the subject “Tribe”.
WRITE “I am Abigail” on your forehead (or anywhere) and tag More Than Me Foundation on Facebook.
SPREAD the word—every last vote counts!

Some More Than Me supporters

Shanti Bhavan

Dear Readers,

Today I would like to talk to you about the Shanti Bhavan Children's Project. Shanti Bhavan is a school in Tamil Nadu, India, founded with the mission of helping the most disadvantaged children from the lowest "untouchable" caste to develop into educated and empowered adults. To that end it provides them with a world-class academic and personal education. Most importantly, it provides these children with a safe and secure home such as they could not otherwise find. You can learn more about the amazing work Shanti Bhavan does on their website.

Boys study at Shanti Bhavan

The founder of Shanti Bhavan, Dr. Abraham George, believes that, "If we can take a few children and give them the best care and the best education, and they become leaders of tomorrow, they will carry with them hundreds of others." In so doing, we will begin to break the cycle of poverty.

I have recently become involved with Shanti Bhavan through a club I am part of here at Tulane. We are working towards the goal of raising $1,600 for Shanti Bhavan, which covers the cost of supporting 1 student for 1 year. If we succeed in this goal we will sponsor Shilpa, a 6th grade student who shows a lot of promise. You can learn more about Shilpa's personal story by following this link.

I would really like to encourage you to donate to Shanti Bhavan. As the holidays draw near, it is important to be thankful for what we have, and to remember those who have less. We are lucky enough to live in a country where disposable income is a reality, and where even if we carve out a little money to give away, we can still depend on getting our next meal. Shanti Bhavan is an amazing cause because it not only changes the lives of its own students, but it prepares them to lift up the entire Indian nation along with them. I cannot think of a better use for some extra cash.

Please donate here, and let me know when you do so we can track progress toward our goal, either by leaving a comment, emailing me at gabriella@itonlytakesagirl.org, Tweeting me @OnlyTakesAGirl, or messaging me on Facebook!

Thank you for your support and commitment to improving our world,

-Gabriella

P.S. I encourage you to share this message with your friends, your family or anyone else you know who wants to support children's education in India and build a brighter future for our entire planet. :)

TEDxTU in The Hullabaloo

My friend Ashley covered the TEDxTU event for Tulane's weekly paper, The Hullabaloo. I have a quote in the story!

POSTED: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2012 10:48 AM

ASHLEY EASTERLY

Twelve leaders from the Tulane and New Orleans communities came together on Thursday to speak at the TEDxTU event on campus in the Kendall Cram room.

Technology, Entertainment and Design, is an organization whose slogan is “ideas worth spreading.” TED organizes lectures on a variety of topics, and TEDx consists of independently organized TED events. At Tulane, TEDxTU is run by TU Changemakers.

“For TED, we start [planning] right after the last event, so we started in the spring semester talking about how we could improve,” TU Changemakers President Mary Bryan said.

This year, TEDxTU focused on social innovation. The night started off with a speech from President Scott Cowen about reimagining Tulane after Hurricane Katrina, and transforming Tulane into an institution of social innovation.

“You won’t be remembered by what you did for yourself,” Cowen said. “You’ll be remembered for what you did for others.”

Several speakers followed, including Tulane students Anoop Jain, Haley Burns, Sam Turner and Gabriella Runnels and Tulane professors Vicki Mayer and Jordan Karubian.

“We did a nomination process for most of [the speakers] this year and had the speakers send in a video of themselves speaking so we could get an idea of how they would be,” Bryan said.

Runnels spoke about a project that she completed for a Tulane scholarship application. Her project included a video that went viral and helped launch her organization, “It Only Takes a Girl.”

“I was asked to apply for the event at the beginning of the summer, before I was even a student at Tulane,” Runnels said. “[The organizers] were very respectful of the speakers. It was all really self-motivated.”

Topics throughout the night ranged from sustainable urban farming to building bathrooms in India.

“The topics and speakers were very intriguing,” senior Chandler Davis said. “I’m glad I attended.”

This article was reposted with the express permission of the author.

© 2012 The Tulane Hullabaloo . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

TEDxTU

For those of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you may know that I gave a talk at the TEDxTU event last Thursday evening.

Photo courtesy of my cousin Hannah's Instagram 

The “TED” in that string of letters stands for “Technology, Entertainment, Design” and refers to the world-renowned nonprofit “devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading.” The most famous and accessible feature of TED is its TEDTalks—short talks by various people about their ideas—which can be viewed for free online.

The “x” means that this event was independently organized; that is, the actual TED organization did not help or monitor the planning or organization of this event beyond initial approval and instruction. And the TU, of course, stands for Tulane University. A group of highly dedicated Tulane students put on this entire event by themselves, and it was an incredible success.

I got an email at the beginning of the summer asking me to apply to speak at the TEDxTU event planned for the fall. I was excited for the chance to get involved even before I was actually a student at Tulane! In order to apply, I had to make a rough draft video generally about what I would include in my final talk. Shortly after receiving my invitation to apply to TEDxTU, the director of the program I was working at over the summer asked me to talk to the kids there about my video and what has come of it (some of you might remember this story from one of my previous blog posts). To kill two birds with one stone, I had that talk filmed, edited it, and submitted it to the TEDxTU organizers, explaining that I would tailor my actual talk to more closely fit the TED event.

It was a long wait before I heard back about my application, but about a month or so after school started, I finally received another email: I was in! I had to attend two rehearsals before the event so the organizers could check my progress, but besides that, I was on my own. I cut down my speech from the summer to about a third its original length and altered it to more appropriately fit the occasion. I went to two rehearsals and got some valuable feedback from the organizers as well as from other TEDxTU speakers. After cutting some here, changing some there, my speech was finally ready—now I just had to memorize it! 

http://tedxtu.com

Because I had given the speech several times (over the summer and in the TEDxTU rehearsals) and had read it to myself many more times than that, it wasn't too difficult to memorize. Still, when October 25 rolled around, I was nervous. The event was hosted in Dixon Hall on Tulane's campus, the main theatre for concerts, musicals and other large productions. I arrived early on the day to practice, and I was ready to go.

The event went swimmingly. Almost five hundred people from Tulane, New Orleans and elsewhere attended. I was the seventh of twelve speakers, with actual TED videos interspersed throughout. The other speakers were excellent, and as soon as the official videos of the event are posted online, I will put them on my blog so you all can see them. The man who spoke right after me said something that really rang true: “There have been so many interesting talks tonight, I forgot to get nervous!”

Overall, it was an amazing experience. I was speaking alongside men and women who had started their own businesses and non-profits, who had been a part of rebuilding post-Katrina New Orleans, who help New Orleans' homeless every day. I was so honored to share my story and everything I've learned from it with so many people. I hope to remain involved in the TEDxTU organizers on campus, so that I can help Tulane continue to share ideas worth spreading for years to come.

Update: You can view the unofficial video of my talk here. Sorry about the vertical format, it was taken with an iPhone! I will post the official video as soon as it is available.

Update Update: You can now view the OFFICIAL video of my talk here! (The link above will no longer work.)

Update

Hello all! It's been awhile since I've written (school has been pretty busy—but amazing!), so I thought I would post a quick update on what's going on with “It Only Takes a Girl” and me.

GeTM

Photo from www.getm.ch

A Swiss organization called “Genève Tiers-Monde” (GeTM) based in Geneva, Switzerland, emailed me a few days ago asking if they could show my video at a special event called “Step into Action organized by Euforia” on November 30. According to the GeTM, “the purpose of our non-profit association is to improve the living and health conditions of poor countries.” Step into Action is a project that “offers young people from 16 to 19 years old the opportunity to explore their responsibilities as global citizens during an interactive and playful track. The event also offers them an occasion to rethink their role in society by taking action in their local environment.” I am very honored that GeTM would like to show my video “so that young people can become aware also about children and women discriminations and treatments.” To learn more about it, please visit this website.

What's Your Brave?™

Several months back, I was interviewed for a book project called What's Your Brave?™ which “shares the insights and acts of everyday courage of teenage girls from across the United States.” I have kept in contact co-author Paula Grieco, who recently asked me for a few sentences in response to the question "What one piece of advice would you give your younger self regarding body image now that you are in college?" for the new e-guide for parents of daughters, “Body Brave: A Manifesto on How You Can Help Your Daughter Develop a Healthy Body Image.” If you are interested, you can find my quote and inspiring stories from several teen girls in this wonderful e-guide for free when you sign up for weekly updates here.

Newcomb Scholars

Some Newcomb Scholars and Linda Sax,
author of The Gender Gap in College

Tulane University and Newcomb College used to be two separate institutions, with the latter being a “women's coordinate college provided for a separate president and faculty who were given the power to determine policy and the course of study for Newcomb students as separate and distinct from the education of the men.” Josephine Louise Newcomb, the founder of Newcomb College, “first wrote to the Administrators of the Tulane University Educational Fund of her desire to establish a college in memory of her daughter, Harriot Sophie” on October 11 (which just so happens to be the International Day of the Girl—and my birthday!), 1886. Today, the two schools are consolidated into the Newcomb-Tulane College, “the home for all male and female undergraduates.” However, there remain some connections to Newcomb's female history; for example, the Newcomb Scholars Program. This program, according to its website, is “a unique opportunity for incoming women at Tulane who are interested in an academically enriching and shared four-year experience through undergraduate research, seminars, and experiential learning opportunities.” There are twenty Newcomb Scholars in each class at Tulane; twenty young women who encourage, support and inspire each other in their work, actions and ambitions. I applied to this competitive program at the beginning of the school year, and today I got a call saying I made it to the interview round of the selection process. I feel as though Newcomb Scholars is just the right fit for me here at Tulane. My interview is this Friday morning—wish me luck!

Giving Back in New Orleans

It is now the second official week of school and I have not attended a single class. No, I am not skipping. Thanks to Hurricane Isaac, Tulane was closed last week from Tuesday to Saturday. While many students enjoyed their “hurrication,” others languished in the heat and darkness of the dorms that lost power during the school-wide lockdown. I personally evacuated to my home, which also lost power during the storm. However, distance and lack of electricity could not keep me from writing for this week's issue of the Hullabaloo! While last week I wrote a story for news, this time I wrote a views story on volunteerism in Tulane students. You can find this and other Hullabaloo stories here.

Students have a responsibility to give back

As I filed into McAlister Auditorium alongside hundreds of my classmates for the president's convocation on Saturday, I was excited to get my first glimpse of an official Tulane ceremony. President Scott Cowen approached the podium to address the new freshman class.

“[New Orleans] has all the issues and problems that plague other great cities throughout our country,” Cowen said. “But now it has you, who have joined in the effort to tackle these problems and improve the lives of those in need.”

Cowen explained that as members of the Tulane community, students are expected to engage in community service and have new experiences that will help the student body grow.

“At Tulane, you will not live in an ivory tower,” Cowen said. “You will also live out there, in the city and sometimes farther afield, in foreign countries, clocking hours at community centers, drop-in clinics, urban gardens, construction sites, schools and churches, meeting unforgettable people, changing their lives, and having your own lives changed by them.”

As Tulane students, we are expected and required to participate in community service during our four years here. This philosophy of volunteering, however, extends beyond our time at Tulane. This university fosters the spirit of service in its students and expects that they will carry it with them for the rest of their lives.

In his address, Cowen spoke about Hurricane Katrina, the most devastating disaster in New Orleans' modern history.

“I’ve spoken many times about Hurricane Katrina and how it transformed Tulane, ushering in a new era of community service and experiential learning,” Cowen said. “Seven years later, we are still reimagining ourselves, but in a spirit that looks not backward to the disaster but ahead to the future.

”

Though the storm occurred seven years ago, the damaging and tragic effects of Katrina still linger in parts of New Orleans today.

Participating in the restoring of post-Katrina New Orleans is a fulfilling and meaningful experience, and many non-profit, New Orleans-based organizations still exist that build up areas torn apart by Katrina.

There are endless opportunities to give back to the community that has given us so much. We are among the most privileged young people in the world by virtue of the fact that we have the opportunity to receive a Tulane education. We have the responsibility to use this privilege to give back to the world around us, and New Orleans is a wonderful place to start.

A-One, a-Two, a Helluva Hullabaloo!

SJE Freshman hard at work in the Hullabaloo office

I've survived my first week of college! Okay... so I haven't even started classes yet. I came to Tulane campus a week early for the Summer Journalism Experience (SJE) with the Tulane Hullabaloo, the completely student-run newspaper on campus. Sixteen freshman were accepted to this program to try their skill as a Hullbaloo journalist before college life and classes really begin. The main reason I applied to this program is because I've been enjoying writing for my blog and can see myself in a career that requires writing for an audience. I figured, journalism is probably an excellent path to learning how to write for large groups of people in a concise yet interesting way. Anyway, I was put on the news team and assigned a story about the new LGBTIQA sorority that's coming to campus later this year. This is the first article I've ever written for a newspaper. Enjoy!

LGBTIQA sorority arriving in the fall

A group of LGBT students and allies have formed an interest group toward founding a chapter of Gamma Rho Lamba, an LGBTIQA sorority, which will become an official chapter of GRL in September.

Junior Courtney Amabile, president of the GRL sorority interest group, believes that a new sorority is necessary to provide a welcoming group for LGBTIQA women who felt excluded from traditional sorority life.

“We wanted the same experience, the same sisterhood,” Amabile said. “But at the same time, we can’t change who we are and we’re not going to for anybody.”

Amabile and two other students approached Liz Schafer, director of fraternity and sorority programs, with a proposal to form a new sorority for LGBTIQA students and allies.

Schafer said that the students were well-organized and clearly driven.

“I think Tulane has always had a pretty welcoming environment for LGBT students,” Schafer said. “So we said, ‘sure, why not? See what you can find out.’”

Supporters of the interest group believe that the anticipated sorority will provide LGBTIQA students with a more accepting atmosphere than a traditional Greek organization. Lauren Kwiatkowski, Former Student Women Embracing Equality at Tulane president believes GRL could provide an inclusive and secure group for these students who might not feel at home in another sorority.

“Greek life, at all universities, has traditionally been stigmatized for not being particularly inclusive of the LGBTQ community,” Kwiatkowski said. “Since there’s now an option, queer students - particularly queer females - now feel that they’re not a step back, behind or below their other students because of their sexual and/or gender identity. It’s definitely a great step for the queer community, and, honestly, female community overall.”

Schafer said she was surprised by the positive and encouraging reaction from other Greek organizations when they learned about the possibility of an LGBT sorority.

Amabile said she is still worried about negative feedback from other groups on campus. She is, however, optimistic that GRL would effectively spread tolerance throughout the Greek system and all of Tulane.

“My main concern going into this is the backlash from other sororities and other groups, fraternities especially,” Amabile said.

She believes, however, the sorority will make way for a new way of thinking.

“I believe it will provide a break in the stereotype of sororities and help facilitate conversation for other multicultural groups or Greek organizations to form as student want and need shows fit,” Amabile said.

The national organization is coming to campus in September to induct the leaders of the group. After that, the group will be considered an official chapter of Gamma Rho Lambda, and recruitment will be open to all students who identify themselves women. Amabile made it clear that GRL will not be exclusively for LGBTIQA students.

“Over half of our members are straight, or ally-identified,” Amabile said. “They also identify as feminists, progressive women, women who don't necessarily follow the grain of society.”

The GRL sorority interest group has several plans for the upcoming year after it reaches full chapter status, such as participating in Safe Zone training, hosting a Pride Prom, and working alongside the organization BreakOUT! to combat the criminalization of LGBTIQA youth in the New Orleans area.

Tulane will be welcoming two other new sororities to campus. Zeta Tau Alpha sorority will come in the spring, and depending on this year’s recruitment numbers, the next new sorority will arrive in either 2014 or 2015.

SJE took a boat tour through a Louisiana swamp--and the gators were not shy