I snatched my phone of the desk tearing my eyes off my computer screen. “Hello?” I asked the unknown number between chews of my sandwich. “Hi Mikayla, it’s Sally Roesch Wagner from the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation. After careful consideration we have chosen you to accompany us for the Chile trip in March”. I practically choked.
Flashback four months ago to when I got a similar phone call informing me I had been accepted to the year long initiative, “Girl Ambassadors for Human Rights.” The program is designed to inspire a new generation of feminists, to explore and share their experiences through social media. With the help of community leaders, 50 teenage girls from Chile, Sri Lanka, and the US discuss their local women’s history and gender discrimination. I became informed of this unique association through my mother, a long time women's rights advocate, with whom I agreed it would provide a great deal of knowledge and opportunity for me to develop as my own individual. The purpose is to allow the participants (myself included) to create person to person connections with girls around the world and to share our facilitated dialog with our communities. Thus far the group has presented invaluable experiences for me to get to know the girls living in upstate New York as well as from our sister Museums in Chile and Sri Lanka. We have talked about many issues such as women's equality in the work force, the double standards with men, unequal representation in politics, sports imbalance, and sexual discrimination. Hearing each individuals personal stories and responses has been extremely profound and eye opening. These are people I would never have met in my daily life, and yet we all share a similar passion for women's issues and a need to express ourselves. To know that their are people who value your opinion and wish to impart their own ideas on you is a great feeling. Through Skype sessions we have become to understand that even hundreds of miles away we all face the same obstacles and a wish to address them together.
Now with the knowledge that I will be one of two girls from the U.S. to travel to Chile as an ambassador through the Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, I have decided to document my adventures as I continue to learn and grow from my involvement in the program. Stay tuned as I detail my journey in becoming an ambassador for human rights.
Flashback four months ago to when I got a similar phone call informing me I had been accepted to the year long initiative, “Girl Ambassadors for Human Rights.” The program is designed to inspire a new generation of feminists, to explore and share their experiences through social media. With the help of community leaders, 50 teenage girls from Chile, Sri Lanka, and the US discuss their local women’s history and gender discrimination. I became informed of this unique association through my mother, a long time women's rights advocate, with whom I agreed it would provide a great deal of knowledge and opportunity for me to develop as my own individual. The purpose is to allow the participants (myself included) to create person to person connections with girls around the world and to share our facilitated dialog with our communities. Thus far the group has presented invaluable experiences for me to get to know the girls living in upstate New York as well as from our sister Museums in Chile and Sri Lanka. We have talked about many issues such as women's equality in the work force, the double standards with men, unequal representation in politics, sports imbalance, and sexual discrimination. Hearing each individuals personal stories and responses has been extremely profound and eye opening. These are people I would never have met in my daily life, and yet we all share a similar passion for women's issues and a need to express ourselves. To know that their are people who value your opinion and wish to impart their own ideas on you is a great feeling. Through Skype sessions we have become to understand that even hundreds of miles away we all face the same obstacles and a wish to address them together.
Now with the knowledge that I will be one of two girls from the U.S. to travel to Chile as an ambassador through the Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, I have decided to document my adventures as I continue to learn and grow from my involvement in the program. Stay tuned as I detail my journey in becoming an ambassador for human rights.
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