Girls across New York gather for lessons in leadership, politics
More than 100 young women from high schools across upstate New York are gathering in Seneca Falls this week for a conference intended to boost government leadership among girls.
The leadership action summit is organized by 1st Amendment-1st Vote, a nonprofit founded in 2018 by Melina Carnicelli, former mayor of Auburn, Cayuga County. She said she was motivated to start the organization after helping bring thousands of women and men in Seneca Falls for a rally in early 2017.
"I was looking at the crowd and all of the young people, and I just thought: 'How do we keep this going?'" she said.
Twenty-three school districts in New York participate in 1st Amendment-1st Vote, discussing issues of equality in their own schools and gathering for larger events like the two-day conference in Seneca Falls.
One is Rush-Henrietta, where Catrena Brown and several of her classmates have been advocating for a better supply of feminine hygiene products in school.
"The products we have at school are super low quality and just one type, and girls have all different needs," she said.
Besides Rush-Henrietta, there are active student groups in Erie, Niagara and Chautauqua in western New York; Steuben and Chemung counties in the Southern Tier; Onondaga, Seneca and Cayuga counties in central New York; and Albany County in the east.
The girls in Seneca Falls heard recorded messages from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Gov. Kathy Hochul and will attend workshops and panel discussions around the nuts and bolts of political involvement, from running a campaign to governing effectively.
The significance of the village of Seneca Falls was a major point of emphasis. "You are following in the footsteps of women who rocked the world," Diana Smith, the former village mayor, said in opening remarks.
Kamellia Barrett, a 12th-grader at Shaker High School near Albany, hopes to become a journalist or educator with a focus on gender and racial equality. She recently attended an event through her school's 1st Amendment-1st Vote club where she got to meet Hochul and read a poem by Maya Angelou to a large gathering.
"The room was full of so many women; it was just a very empowering experience," she said.
Margo Smith, a teacher and club adviser at Rush-Henrietta, said she has already seen its effect on the girls who participate.
"They're able to see those gender disparities, and they see they when you identify problems, you have to advocate for yourself," she said. "If you don't, you're not going to get it done."
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This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Girls across New York gather for lessons in leadership, politics
