Blog

Girl Power Project® Featured at 2018 Universality of Global Education Issues Conference

JLMC Featured at 2018 Universality of Global Education Issues Conference (UGEIC) | JUSTLIKEMYCHILD.ORG

 

JLMC’s Girl Power Project® Featured at 2018 Universality of Global Education Issues Conference (UGEIC)

JLMC’s partnership with Texas A&M University creates another opportunity to present the impact of the Girl Power Project®.

JLMC Featured at 2018 Universality of Global Education Issues Conference (UGEIC) | JUSTLIKEMYCHILD.ORGJust Like My Child Foundation (JLMC) and Texas A & M University (TAMU) were honored to join interdisciplinary scholars and students from around the world to present at the 6th annual 2018 Universality of Global Education Issues Conference (UGEIC) at Sam Houston State University in Hunstville TX, from February 28 to March 1, 2019.

The UGEIC is a small highly interactive conference that brings together experts to discuss issues, theories, research, practices and teaching in diverse international education environments. 

The theme for this year’s conference, which had 40 presentations/panel discussions, was “Education for Culturally Sustaining Practices.”

The conference attracted about 75 registrants and many hourly or day visitors from SHSU, including research teams from Turkey, Russia, Costa Rica, and Mexico. TAMU collaborators and colleagues presented about research and outreach in Uganda, Haiti, Senegal, Liberia, Ghana, and Nicaragua, Roscoe ISD; Departments of Horticulture Science and Sociology; and High Impact Experiences with refugees through the International Rescue Committee-Dallas.

Texas A&M professor Dr. Manuel Pina, Jr. moderated a panel discussion on :Sustaining Culture while Raising Consciousness: Four Case Studies of Women and Education.”

Just Like My Child’s Program Director Tessa Davis shared some of the key principles that have anchored Just Like My Child Foundation’s work and has led to successes in sustainable programming that positively impacts adolescent girls and their surrounding communities. 

Some of these key principles were:

  • Understand the context
  • Consider and engage all stakeholders in order to design sustainable programming
  • Work in partnership
  • Do no harm
  • Stay put—go deep, not wide
Lindsey Coleman, one of the TAMU masters students from the university’s Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications (ALEC) program who has evaluated the impact of JLMC’s Girl Power Project® at the community level, reported on the outcomes of TAMU’s research that was completed in Uganda.
TAMU findings included increased:
  • community awareness and advocacy for girls education
  • community knowledge and agency to respond to violence against girls
  • community awareness and dialogue on women’s equality
  • assumption of responsibility by community leaders with regard to girls issues
  • flexibility of gender roles within the community
  • capacity of community members to parent their children

Mitchell Baker, one of the TAMU masters students from the university’s Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications (ALEC) program who completed his thesis on the impact of JLMC’s Girl Power Project® at the community level, reported on the outcomes of his research that was completed in Uganda.

The Girl Power Project® stakeholders indicated that they want agricultural education to be taught as part of the program. The JLMC team revealed that they would need training, inputs, collaboration and financial resources in order to successfully add an agricultural component to the Girl Power Project®.
Recommendations for potential next steps included:
  • Begin searching for agricultural and learning design institutions for collaboration
  • Continue collecting data from expanded stakeholder groups to learn more for programatic design
  • Conduct a needs assessment to evaluate potential small holder agricultural education trainings for Girl Power Project club sessions
  • Dialogue with school leadership of Girl Power Project trained communities about developing agricultural experiential learning opportunities

The conference was well attended and highly engaging. JLMC was able to share the important work being done in Uganda, while learning from other experts in the industry and continuing to develop their partnership and future plans with Texas A&M University. 

The following Texas A&M University representatives were in attendance:

  1. Manuel Piña, Jr., Dept of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications
  2. Gary Briers, Dept of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications
  3. Jaehyun Ahn, Dept of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications
  4. Mitchell Baker, Dept of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications
  5. Hannah Russell, Dept of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications
  6. Lindsey Coleman, Dept of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications
  7. Danette Philpot, Dept of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications
  8. Michael Legorreta, Dept of Horticulture Science
  9. Gerald Burgner, Dept of Horticulture Science
  10. Jenna Kurten, Dept of Sociology
  11. Melinda Garcia, Texas AgriLife Extension Service
  12. Diana Carmenaty, University of the Southwest
  13. Tessa Davis, Just Like My Child Foundation
  14. Elizabeth Bird, Christianville Foundation, Inc.
  15. Alex Laywell, International Rescue Committee-Dallas
  16. Chaundra Merrell, International Rescue Committee-Dallas
  17. Kellie Seals, Roscoe Independent School District

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE GIRL POWER PROJECT®

Follow JLMC on Instagram @justlikemychild and Facebook @justlikemychildfoundation for more updates on the progress of this partnership.

About Just Like My Child Foundation: Since its founding in 2006, Just Like My Child Foundation has developed deep partnerships with rural communities in Africa to deliver sustainable programs that address health care, education, microenterprise, social justice, and women/girls’ empowerment. Through that work, JLMC organically came to understand that focusing on vulnerable adolescent girls is a powerful approach to disrupting the cycle of poverty. Today, Just Like My Child Foundation is focused on its mission to empower vulnerable adolescent girls by enabling them to create healthy, self-sustaining families who prosper without further aid. Learn more about their quest to transform the world, one girl at a time, at www.JustLikeMyChild.org

Subscribe to Our Newsletter!

Join A Global Movement!

  • Hidden
    Hidden field. Maps to "Lead Source" field in Salesforce.
  • Hidden
    Hidden field, maps to "Email Opt Out" field in Salesforce. Value = FALSE
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Leave a Comment

Enter your keyword: