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school and go into the real world,” Harris said. Through
this program, participating young women are exposed to a
variety of collage and career opportunities through campus
tours and meeting influential female mentors, like the female
executives from Chevron that regularly work with the girls.
“The year we started this program, in 2016, we took the girls
to Washington DC to tour collages and, as a result of that
trip, those girls who were freshman then are now seniors and
they are applying to collages that we exposed them to,” she
shared. “It is exciting just seeing them excited about collage
and applying.”
This year, a handful of Collage Bound Girls participants
will be traveling to Kenya. “We have five girls that will be
going to Africa,” described Harris. “They will be staying
at an all-girls school for twelve days where they will be
bonding with girls there and learning about Kenyan culture.”
Looking ahead to continued growth and expanding their
impact, Harris said Girls Inc. of West Contra Costa’s goal is
to be able to serve at least 700 girls and young women by
2020. A partial grant from the nation level of Girls Inc. as
well as adding new fund raising events throughout the year
as set them up to reach this goal, according to Harris. “Also,
we plan to start working with our alums and building that
network to increase impact and positive outcomes,” she said.
An alum herself, Harris knows how influential the program
can be. “I was a participant when I was 10 and 11 years old
and came back in 2011 as a volunteer; I have been executive
director since 2015,” she said. “For me, if it wasn’t for Girls
Inc. I don’t think I would have cultivated the relationships I
have with the women in my life. It really encouraged me to
see that sister-hood is important and that uplifting women
and supporting one another is phenomenal—in working
together we will all succeed!”
Having the privilege to be a part of the girls growing and
maturing into young women is one of the biggest rewards
she receives as a leader in the organization today. “One of
my favorite things is just being able to expose them to new
opportunities and just giving these youth any chance we can
for them to see things they don’t see in Richmond and the
surrounding area,” she shared. “I want them to know that
there is a larger world out there and it is waiting for them to
take it, to explore, to make something happen, and to make a
change—in today’s world our girls need to be empowered to
make a change.”
As a Girls Inc. participant herself, Tiffany Harris executive
director of Girls Inc. West Contra Costa, is dedicated to
inspiring girls and young women to be strong, smart, and bold.
Stem @ Chevron: Every month leading female executive from the
Chevron Corporation work with the girls, mentor them, teaching
them skills, and showing them how they can be successful.
Girls Inc. West Contra Costa
260 Broadway, Richmond;
(510) 232-5440; Girlsinc-wcc.org