Alice Baumgartner

Alice ran Girls Run, a program for 4-6th grade girls, which built confidence and awareness about health issues and nutrition. At each of the sessions she organized, Yale coaches led group games, encouraged participants to push through a tough training run, or taught one of five educational units  (tolerance, self-esteem, body image, nutrition, and leadership).  By incorporating a health curriculum with a running program, Girls Run not only taught girls about healthy practices, but also gave them the tools to incorporate this knowledge into their everyday lives. In addition, Alice took the girls to grocery stores, where she taught them how to read labels on foods. They also went to McDonald’s and grilled the manager about salt and fat in the food.

Mark Beyersdorf

Mark organized four lectures around the topic of sex trafficking and prostitution, with over 100 people attending the last presentation. This included a keynote speaker and a panel discussion following the lecture.

Poster on Sex Trafficking Lectures

Janet Noh

Janet organized an “empowerment day” for thirty female high school students, most of whom were women of color. She recruited twelve successful businesswomen, most of who were from New York, to speak to the girls. These included a shoe designer, a financial analyst from Lehman Brothers, and an architect. The presenters were as excited as the girls, and several of the girls obtained internships at the businesses.  After “empowerment day,” a number of groups contacted Janet to put together similar programs for other youth.  This was a continuation of Janet’s project from 2006-2007.

Anna Smith and Ted Palenski

Anna and Ted rewrote the State of Connecticut’s application form for low-income people to get help with childcare. The state has a generous stipend available but the application was so poorly worded and confusing that eligible people were not applying for aid. In addition to rewriting the application, Anna and Ted created a booklet with tips about the program that was very user friendly and easy to read, which was distributed throughout the state.