The next generation of strong women starts with Highland Park High's Girl Up club

Alizé Davis has her family, then she has her school family.

You wouldn't know it from talking to her today, but the Highland Park High School senior, cheer squad captain and club president used to be terrified of being involved in school extracurriculars. Up to her freshman year, Davis considered herself shy and timid. Her prior experiences with other girls were not the best.

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But then she joined the school's still-growing Girl Up club, and in it, she found a family, including a "school mom" in principal Juli Watson.

"I’ve made so many great relationships, and I’ve made so many friends," Davis said. "Girl Up has allowed to me to come out of my shell, and be comfortable with myself."

Highland Park's Girl Up club has grown from a dozen students to about 150

Watson was still an assistant principal about six years ago when the school drama came to a head. Girls were bickering and going at each other, and problems in and outside of school kept sending those girls to Watson's office.

Something needed to change.

Watson thought back to her time as a Peace Corps member in Namibia, where she started a girl empowerment group. As a trial run, she picked 12 girls to meet with in over the course of a spring semester to work on things like leadership, healthy relationships and other life skills.

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It was such a big hit, the group continued to meet even during the following summer.

The next year, Watson opened up the girl empowerment group to the school at large, and about 30 girls started attending the weekly meetings. As they got to meet and understand the club, word of mouth helped recruit even more students, and in the third year, more than 100 girls joined.

"Once we got T-shirts, it was game over," Watson joked. "I didn’t even advertise anymore."

Now in its sixth year, Girl Up has about 150 members, Watson said, and she almost hesitates to advertise the group any longer, since having all of the high school's girls in a single club might be a bit much.

It's so big, that the club has to split up into groups of freshman and juniors, and sophomore and seniors.

“You don’t have to be a certain type of kid to be a part of Girl Club,” Watson said. “We have athletes, we have scholars, we have musicians, we have artists — it’s every type of girl.”

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No one is turned away from Girl Up, Watson said. That’s not to say any girl can automatically join — the club has the same policies on keeping up good grades and staying out of trouble that any other extracurricular at the school has.

But the club serves as an incentive for its members to do well in school, Watson said, and that’s especially crucial for new students or students who may not find a niche elsewhere in the school.

"They don’t want to lose being a part of this," Watson said. "They don’t want to lose this camaraderie we’ve built, and Girl Up has helped them find a place to work through drama. We teach them about self-image, being confident, dealing with stress and solving problems. We build them up, and because of that, it helps stop all of the little fires that are everywhere."

Girl Up gives Highland Park students the skills that 'sometimes get missed in life'

Over the years and with ballooning membership, Watson has brought in other building leaders and staff to help run the Girl Up club. That’s been a blessing particularly this year, since Watson’s duties as the new principal often pull her away from the club.

The important thing, though, is that each girl finds a trusted adult at Highland Park High School who knows, understands and fights for them to be successful.

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“It can’t just be anyone,” Watson said. “It has to be people they feel comfortable with, and who they connect with.”

In the first semester of each school year, the club works on helping girls build themselves up. In the spring, they work on how to build others up.

The staffers work with the girls on skills like dealing with stress, building healthy relationships and spending wisely. Girl Up also brings in outside groups and instructors to work with the girls on life skills like car maintenance, cosmetology and healthy living. Highland Park High's school resource officer also gives the girls self-defense lessons.

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"It’s about teaching them things that sometimes get missed in life," Watson said. "You sometimes just think, ‘Someone else taught it to them,’ but that’s not always the case."

More than anything, though, Girl Up is a place for the girls to relax and laugh and enjoy each other’s’ company — something that has somehow become rare for today’s teenagers.

“We just have a good time, and they look forward to it,” Watson said. “We can’t even cancel it, because when we do, they just eat us up.”

Girl Up builds strong, confident women out of Highland Park High School's teenage girls

Davis, the senior cheer captain and president of Girl Up, said being a part of Girl Up has made her have a deeper appreciation for the strong women in her life who have raised her.

Being a teenage girl nowadays is more challenging, with constant pressure from peers, social media and societal standards to always look and behave a certain way.

But Girl Up gives Davis and other girls a place to find relief from that pressure.

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"It's about trying not to drown," she said. "It means learning to be a lady, whether or not you have women in your life to teach you how to do that. It’s about lifting up the women and younger girls in your life."

Watson noted that girls like Davis have become mentors to the girls in the lower grades, and they serve not only as role models but friends.

"When we find girls who are maybe being led astray, we fold them in and bring them back," Watson said. "Same with new students, who have maybe never lived in Topeka or gone to Highland Park. We pull them in, and we support them. It’s a place to be a part of something."

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A goal of Watson's is to help Topeka USD 501's other high schools and middle schools start up Girl Up clubs of their own.

But long term, she hopes that the girls at Highland Park's Girl Up can run it all, and that staff just facilitate meetings.

"They empower themselves," Watson said.

Rafael Garcia is an education reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached at rgarcia@cjonline.com or by phone at ‪785-289-5325. Follow him on Twitter at @byRafaelGarcia.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Highland Park High School Girl Up empowers teens to be strong women