A letter from our Director to supporters:
Dear Friends and Supporters,
2020 was like no other in so many ways. It has been a difficult path for all of us and we have made it through with generous empathy for others and our inner strength and forgiveness for ourselves.
For many, including Inspiring Girls, 2020 has been a transition point. As the Director, I want to share with you our recent successes amidst the pandemic and our dreams for our future as an organization.
You care enough to join our mailing list, I hope that means you will consider supporting us with a gift to step into 2021 empowered to change the lives of more girls*!
Give a gift of curiosity, creativity, and courage. Click to donate!
Believe it or not, despite the pandemic and being stuck in our homes, we DID change the lives of many girls this year. In just a few weeks, our team of amazing leaders redesigned our curriculum for Expeditions@Home and we lead 4 teams of 8-9 girls through a summary of discovery that follows the model of our expeditions, with a twist. We also offered a series of workshops for another 50 or more girls. That means we reached nearly 100 girls, all who delighted at the opportunity to expand their world beyond their home and neighborhood. We don’t know what is coming in summer 2021, but we hope to continue to offer Expeditions@Home in addition to Girls on Ice, Girls on Water, Girls in Icy Fjords, Girls on Rock, and our new Girls in the Forest.
As an organization, we took this year to consider our larger goals and work towards those. And as I look back on what the leadership community accomplished this year, I realize how well set up we are for continued impact into the future. A few of our accomplishments include:
Initiating an alumni network to allow us and our alumni to continue to learn and inspire each other.
Designing a beautiful field journal that embodies much of our learning and teaching goals as a guide for our instructors and expedition team members.
Improving our open and inclusive culture towards increasing the diversity of our leadership and organization as a whole. We have and will continue to take concrete steps to review our organization’s philosophy and our policies and actions.
Improving our organizational structure to accommodate growth! We are an international organization that is expanding with new partners joining and new expeditions being developed every year.
As the director of Inspiring Girls, I am a big picture thinker and value the leadership team we have built that makes our ideas and dreams turn into reality. These dreams require support from people like you. Within the US, we have continued support for our expeditions from the US National Science Foundation, NASA, and other federal and state agency support because they see the value of our work towards strengthening the scientific community overall as well as inspiring future scientists and community leaders. But the support of individuals like you is what keeps the organization as a whole together and keeps our leadership energized to make it all happen.
My dreams for 2021 and beyond include
Continuing to offer our unique expeditions, especially our new Girls in the Forest;
Expanding to new expeditions in Oregon, Austria, New Zealand, and beyond;
Energizing our alumni community through our private social network and mentoring;
Creating pathways for alumni to become instructor through internships and scholarships;
Strengthening our leadership community through virtual workshops, an in-person retreat, and peer mentoring;
Increasing diversity, openness, and inclusivity in authentic and empowering ways;
Reaching more girls* by expanding Expeditions@Home to include local in-person mini-expeditions to explore local parks and landscapes.
I want to highlight our vision to create pathways for our alumni to become instructors through internships and scholarships. This goes hand in hand with our goal of increasing the diversity of our leadership and providing support and mentoring to our alumni and our leadership community. We hope to offer paid internships for our alumni to work with us as well as to offer scholarships for our alumni to get additional training they might need to grow as scientists, artists and wilderness explorers. Please consider giving a little extra to support this effort. And if you would like, send a note (optional!) to oregon@girlsonice.org to let us know who you are, why you are giving, and how you want your gift to be spent.
Give a gift of curiosity, creativity, and courage. Click to donate!
Oregon State University is the lead institution; you can give to the organization as a whole through OSU. We would also love your support at any of our partner institutions. Please click here to see how to give to OSU or any of our partners.
Thank you for reading.
Happy New Year! Stay safe and healthy in 2021!
Erin Pettit
girls*: Inspiring Girls* Expeditions embraces gender-expansive identities.