Service Learning Proposal

Service Learning Proposal for Young Women’s Leaders Program
By: Tiy McIntosh

April 2, 2012

Meredith Tweed

WST 3015-0001

Community Partner Profile:

Community Partner: Young Women Leaders Program (YWLP)

Contact: Maria Roman

Community partner mission statement: “YWLP promotes middle school girls’ leadership abilities, pairing collegiate women with middle school girls. In mentoring pairs and small groups of Big and Little Sisters, participants focus on learning competence and autonomy, independent thinking, empowerment, self-esteem, and encouraging girls to think about their futures” (Young Women’s Leaders Program).

The Proposal: Growing up into a young woman from a young girl is tough already with the changes our bodies have to go through. Certain parts of our bodies get bigger, and things start to happen that might scare us. Then, while dealing with all of this with have to deal with our friends at school who might have developed more than us or the popularity standard. Sometimes we may feel as though our parents do not understand anything that we go through. This is when we feel like we need someone like a big sister to help us understand what’s going on with our bodies and changes in our social lives. This is where the Young Women Leaders Program comes in. They would help girls understand that the changes that they are going through are completely normal, and if they absolutely need advice or just a listening ear big sisters will be there for them.

This project relates to Women’s Studies as a whole. Women are always being defined by men (not to say that all men want to fit women into these conventional roles). And I would guess that most of them do not know what it’s like to be a woman. We are always trying to find ways to redefine our purpose in life and most of the time gets criticized for not conforming to the norms of women in society. This program helps to advocate for young girls, which is another form of activism. In my opinion, I think that’s what Women’s Studies is all about. One thing that relates to women and women’s studies is our body image. We are always conformed into being these perfect, slim, gorgeous, tall, straight haired individuals. But, in actuality how many real women do we know really look like this. So many women strive to be the ideal, but I think it is time that women strive to be their own ideal and live up to their own standards. Our text has so much written about this certain issue that it is kind of hard to write a summary of it. However, one chapter that I favor in the textbook is “Women’s Bodies and Health”. It really sheds some light on how society views our bodies and our health. I was really surprised by this because I didn’t realized how much it impacts every woman’s lives. While we try to be this impossible super perfect woman, we fail to realize that we have the younger generation looking up at us thinking that they have to do the same instead of loving who they really are.

What I would love to do is change the way social media views the way a woman should look, but I know that’s impossible. However, while partnering with YWLP, I would love to observe how they interact with this issue and how they help these young girls with this certain problem. While observing, I would be glad to help with any of the promoting and crafts that they might need and volunteering my time for anything that the organization needs.

Works Cited

Mission Statement from YWLP. http://womensstudies.cah.ucf.edu/ywlp/