Stepping Outside

When girls are given the opportunity to have new experiences beyond their immediate communities, we challenge them to step outside of the familiar, beyond their comfort zones, to try on new roles and explore their capacities, enabling them to see themselves as being more than who they imagine themselves to be.  This past December 6th and 7th grade All STARS participants from Roots International Academy and CCPA had just this opportunity.

During an unconventional fieldtrip on a Thursday evening in December, thirteen wide eyed and unsuspecting girls were hosted for desert by Chris VavRosky, owner of the Park Avenue Bar and Grill in Piedmont, where all but two ordered chocolate fudge cake and then debated for five minutes over the authenticity of the table’s floral centerpieces.  Girls pointed at the restaurant's ceiling fans shaped like large tropical flowers that whirled overhead and sat beside new girls that they were not usually bound to by the hip in conversation.  Some ducked out of site of photos being taken at their tables while others enthusiastically leaned in closer to one another flashing huge smiles.

Forty five minutes later, girls were hastily ushered through back into Girls Inc. vans and driven to UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall to see a performance of Mark Morris' The Hard Nut-a unique and contemporary interpretation of the season's classic Nutcracker tale.  After twice relocating thirteen middle school girls full of chocolate fudge cake out of incorrect seats, girls were prodded to locate and read the show's summary in the program so that they might have some understanding of the story. Tickets for the evening shower were acquired for All STARS by Andrea Nachtigall, Director of On the Town! Cultural Adventures for Girls and donated by Cal Performances’ Education and Community Programs.  I challenged one girl, recently enamored with The Juilliard School that she had lately discovered in a college search at school, to comb the program’s biography of performers for as many Juilliard Alumnae as she could.  Throughout our time in the hall we practiced naming as many instruments in the orchestra as girls could recognize, we took bathroom breaks.   Some girls enjoyed the show while others didn’t.  I hissed down the row for girls to put away Cheetos that were being not so secretly eaten during the show’s Second Act.  After the show, girls hurriedly took one last bathroom break and then called their parents to let them know that they were on their way home.  

I know from my own personal experiences that when girls are repeatedly given the opportunity to challenge themselves to be in new environments they come to believe that they can be successful outside of the habits and experiences of what is familiar and explore the unknown.

I try not to take too personally the fact that after months of preparation and coordination, most girls still remember the chocolate fudge cake most fondly.  One still talks about the shows she might be in when she attends Juilliard.

Thank you to all of the people that helped to make these new experiences possible; Andrea Nachtigall, Chris VavRosky and Cal Performances

Vivian Partida, All STARS Program Coordinator