2023 GIRL EFFECT
Ella Jacobs
Cardinal Newman High School Rocky Mountain College, Montana |
Ella's Girl Effect - Campaigned to make Boy Scouts an inclusive place for both genders. Starting as far back as 2015, at the age of 10, Ella became a girls leadership advocate and gained national media attention in her efforts to make the Boys Scouts a more inclusive organization for everyone. Then in 2021, partially due to her efforts, the Boys Scouts welcomed its initial wave of female Eagle Scouts. Among that small group of female pioneers was Ella. Ella has completed numerous service projects, earned multiple merit awards in different subjects, fulfilled leadership roles, learned outdoor skills, and completed a comprehensive independently led community service project. In 2021, she was President of the Cardinal Newman Saint Vincent de Paul Club where she organized and executed numerous school service projects and fundraisers. And In 2022, she also founded Venture Crew 55, in Santa Rosa. Essay Quote: "I have always believed in the power of being part of your community and giving back to the world around you in as many ways as you can. This belief empowered me to advocate for girls to be allowed to join Boy Scouts of America and seek opportunities through scouting to give back to my community. I also have always found great value in the healing and nurturing ability of animals. I believe it is extremely important to advocate for animals and care for them to the best of my ability. My career goal of becoming a large animal veterinarian will allow me to give back to my community through caring for animals and, by extension, their owners. I'm extremely grateful for this scholarship which will be going towards my education to become a large animal vet." |
2022 GIRL EFFECT
TANNA CURTIS
Maria Carrillo High School Cal Poly San Luis Obispo |
Tanna’s Girl Effect - Latina Domestic Abuse Educational Campaign.
Tanna was the recipient of the 2021 Heart of Sonoma County Youth Volunteer of the Year Award and is passionate about advocating for the underprivileged. In 2021 she founded the Latina Domestic Abuse Educational Campaign. She received grant money to launch a campaign to educate Latina women in Sonoma County regarding the legal rights and resources that are available to them to help prevent domestic abuse and intimate partner violence. She designed a website and brochures and distributed them throughout the community. She also launched an after school CalRobo robotics program and volunteered as a cook and “Delivery Angel” for Ceres Community Project, where she prepared and delivered nutritional meals for economically disadvantaged members of the community. She also has worked for Saver Sports, to provide athletic equipment and other resources to disadvantaged youth. Essay quote: Advocating for change and finding my voice through volunteer opportunities, and knowing the significance of my efforts on my community has made me realize that is what gives me the greatest satisfaction and sense of purpose in my life. Being an advocate for persons who are in need of effective advocates on their behalf is what has prompted me to want to go to college and law school, so that I can be an investigative attorney for the California DFEH, and advocate for the rights of persons who are in protected categories for a living. I hope to continue to be a loud, strong voice for others and make my community a better place in college, and beyond. |
SOFIA FRAZER
Sonoma Valley High School Emerson College |
Sofia’s Girl Effect - “Daily Dose of Wokeness.” Sofia is an influential storyteller. To spark social justice conversations for her generation, she created an Instagram account called “Daily Dose of Wokeness." In the span of the three years she amassed nearly 75,000 followers and was featured in Teen Vogue twice for her work in encouraging her peers to become involved in social justice. She curated tweets and articles about current events, covering topics ranging from environmental issues to racial injustice to gender inequality. She also covered various meaningful debates including: “Cancel Culture vs. Accountability,” “Cultural Appreciation vs. Appropriation,” and global COVID-19 surges. In 2019, she was featured in a Teen Vogue article, “Why Teens Are Creating Their Own News Outlets.” Her second feature was in 2020, titled “Why Vote in 2020?” where she urged her peers to look beyond our circumstances and elect politicians who lead in a copasetic and responsible manner.
Essay Quote: Social media’s power to educate is often undermined. Generation Z is criticized for educating themselves through the screen but in reality, we are one of the most socially aware generations because of our access to so many forms of media. Running Daily Dose of Wokeness expanded my knowledge on issues that did not directly impact me. It helped me to understand how to change my mindset so that I could learn from others who had different life experiences. I was able to educate and learn from peers not just within Sonoma Valley, but well beyond. |
2021 GIRL EFFECT
Elsa Winters
Sonoma Valley High School University of California Santa Barbara |
Elsa's Girl Effect: Art, Nature and Social Justice.
Elsa has multifaceted passions in art, nature and social justice. She has accomplished multiple community centered projects. She raised $800 for the Innocence Project by designing and selling BLM T-shirts to promote advocacy. She joined the Sonoma Valley Arts Task Force and distributed 600 hearts for kids to paint and display in the midst of the pandemic. She independently designed & proposed an 800 square foot mural for SVHS. And she co-founded the Sonoma Ecology Center’s Earthlings Club (community based group fostering sustainability in Sonoma) where she led weekly educational hikes, local creek cleanups, and started “Heal the Valley Initiative” by working with businesses to promote eco-friendly practices. Essay Quote: “My artistic pursuits and community advocacy are continuously teaching me the importance of welcoming challenges to foster personal growth. Fusing my different interests together has shown me that by embodying the role of an agent of change within the classroom, workplace, and greater global community, I can merge the gap between art and science to elevate the future.” |
Emersyn Klick
Healdsburg High School University of Southern California |
Emersyn's Girl Effect: Creating a Sustainable World.
Emersyn took her entrepreneurial passion for the environment and sustainability and started a company called "Simply Bee Better." Honey bees, being crucial to our ecosystem, were her inspiration. She took a beekeeping class, purchased hives, and sells honey and lip balms using only environmentally friendly packaging. She also educates others about the importance of bees and how to raise them, by giving presentations to high schools and preschools. Essay Quote: “I have always had a passion for sustainability and creating an environmentally friendly world. These fields of study were seeded from my honey bee business, following the most sustainable and environmentally friendly practices possible. Business and environmental sciences appeal to me because I want to make a positive impact in the world and our practices as humans.” |
Rituja Bhowmik
Maria Carrillo High School University of California Berkeley |
Rituja's Girl Effect: Emergency Preparedness for Seniors.
Rituja has a goal to create safe, healthy and sustainable communities. She is the founder of "Seniors 4 Change", a self-run program that provides disaster readiness technology services for seniors 65+. For 3 years she has given in-home appointments to ensure local seniors have Nixle installed and that they know how to use it. She has also created advertisements for monthly newsletters and published and distributed pamphlets about emergency readiness for 4 mobile home parks in Santa Rosa. Essay Quote: After losing her own home in the Tubbs fire, Rituja says, “What affected me the most was not losing the materials we owned, but the shock of how grossly unprepared we were. There were no county alerts, door knocks, or sirens. It also struck me how an overwhelming majority of the people affected were elderly and lived alone. Lack of knowledge of technology was the first root cause I thought of. I saw a dire need for outreach to increase emergency readiness, yet no one seemed to be working on this particular issue. That's why I made the first call to Valley Vista Mobile Estates and pitched my service idea to their management team.” Since that date, Rituja has assisted over 250 seniors. |
Annabell Robles
Roseland University Prep University of California San Diego |
Annabell's Girl Effect: Emergency Preparedness.
Annabell is an avid sewer and has created multiple full sized quilts. As president of her school's quilting club, when Covid hit, she mobilized to acquire donated fabric and started sewing custom face masks to donate to the community and also sell through social media. Essay Quote: “I believe I'm a person who has many interests, it was always so hard to decide when asked to pick just one. I like school, it's something that comes naturally to me, but I also like it because I get to interact with other people during classes and in clubs. It's something that I've really missed through COVID. I also really enjoy art. Art is my way of expressing myself, there are many different forms I see myself doing. I draw, bullet journal, scrapbook, paint, digitally draw, but most importantly I sew.” |
