We’re collegiettes, we’re going to school, we’re setting ourselves up for careers that are full of our passions, our skills, our dreams, and our future can be whatever we craft it to be. We’re collegiettes, by definition we are college women who are on top of our game and are driven. We’ve chosen to be this, we had a choice to be this.
“62 million girls around the world are not in school,” is quoted directly on whitehouse.gov. Wait, stop, 62 million? 62 million. That’s a number so big that you probably have never had 62 million of anything in your life, besides hair and skin cells. 62 million girls, just like you. They weren’t given the choice to go to school, to set themselves up for a career full of their passions or their skills. 62 million.
“Half of them are adolescents,” follows up that on whitehous.gov. Hold up, adolescents, as in children? As in children, as in when I was learning to ride a bike with my dad and learning about earthworms with my mom, these girls are being told that they can’t go to school anymore, that time’s up. That they are ready for marriage.
Let Girls Learn is a movement, through the Peace Corps and the white house that wants so badly to allow girls to learn! “Peace Corps’ nearly 7,000 volunteers – in more than 60 developing countries – are already working side-by-side with families and community leaders. Through the grassroots development work that Peace Corps volunteers do each and every day, they are already positioned to work with communities to identify the barriers facing adolescent girls who want to attend, and stay in, school.” (1)
So why should you care? Because these are girls, just like you reading this and just like me writing this. These are girls who are getting married at the age of 11, when you were trying to figure out what a period was. These are girls who aren’t receiving any education because it is not offered. But more than all of that, these are people.
So how you do you get involved? You donate, you help the movement, you sign up, you can go on whitehouse.gov to learn more. On September 23, Her Campus Utah will be hosting a volleyball tournament at the U in order to raise money for Let Girls Learn, only $5 a person! So sign up, grab some friends and Spike For Her Right to learn, because they are people.
To sign up for Spike for Her Right click here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1wEBlgJgbn3xl7l-R9X1Bu24wnEXaTEJ46s5Qh_eS19A/viewform
Sources:
1. https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/image/files/let_girls_learn_fact_sheet_03032015.pdf_
To learn more: https://www.whitehouse.gov/letgirlslearn