News
Upcoming IMPACT Sessions to Tackle Tough Topics
In a four-part fall series, professional speakers will come to campus to educate students and parents on issues such as substance abuse and anxiety; GPS to provide follow-up support.
In 2008, GPS trustees Lizzer Graham ’77 and Lorie Mallchok ’81 thought beyond our focus on academic preparation and took a proposal to the Board of Trustees, asking for something that would make our girls “ready” in other ways.
They wanted every girl at each grade level to experience activities and speakers that would prepare her for a balanced life—as a woman, as a citizen, and as a member of a local and global community. As a result, IMPACT was born—an umbrella for a wide array of programs designed to help girls achieve self-awareness, self-confidence, independence, and active global citizenship.
They wanted every girl at each grade level to experience activities and speakers that would prepare her for a balanced life—as a woman, as a citizen, and as a member of a local and global community. As a result, IMPACT was born—an umbrella for a wide array of programs designed to help girls achieve self-awareness, self-confidence, independence, and active global citizenship.
As part of our commitment to parents as a partner in the preparation of their daughters for adulthood, we informed and included them in our plans for IMPACT this year.
Last spring we surveyed our parent and student populations. Among the responses a very clear, consistent request surfaced: girls and parents wanted to talk about the tough stuff—the nitty gritty of adolescence, the topics that can be uncomfortable but remain vital to girls’ health, safety, and development.
And we agree. We want these conversations to happen. We want them to happen in safe spaces with research-based methodologies, presented by experts in these fields. All too often, in the current digital communication landscape, a girl’s introduction to topics such as drugs, suicide, anxiety, or sex comes via a miniseries on Netflix. Or someone’s SnapChat story. Or 140 characters written by a stranger.
As a result, we are reviving a series of IMPACT programs designed to help parents and students deal with transitions, relationships, and healthy choices titled Girl Matters | Girls Matter.
Each Girl Matters | Girls Matter engagement will be two-pronged: a parent session the preceding Thursday evening or Friday morning followed by a student session Friday morning during IMPACT. For several of these topics, girls will be grouped by grades in order to hear age-appropriate messaging.
By providing a common experience, a common vocabulary for our community to use when addressing current topics, we best support students and parents. In addition to the engagement, supplemental resources are available via the Support Services Resource Board to broaden and enhance the facilitated content so parents can continue the conversation with their daughters.
The first topic in the Girl Matters | Girls Matter series is substance abuse awareness and prevention, presented by FCD Prevention Works Specialists. Parents are encouraged to attend a session September 28 at 6 p.m. in the Evans Center; the student session will be the following day during IMPACT. FCD Prevention Works Specialists, part of the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, is a leading international nonprofit provider of school-based substance abuse prevention services. For decades, FCD has provided students (and the adults who care for them) across the globe with the knowledge, understanding, and skills required to make intelligent, healthy choices about alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use.
Three more sessions will follow this fall, covering topics such as suicide prevention, relationships, and anxiety:
- One of only a very small percentage of people to survive a jump from the Golden Gate Bridge, Kevin Hines now uses his story of survival to teach others about suicide prevention and wellness. A winner of The Clifford W. Beers Award (the Mental Health America's highest honor) for his efforts to improve the lives of and attitudes toward people with mental illnesses, Hines will speak to parents October 20 at 8 a.m. in the Evans Center; only Upper School students will hear him speak later that morning during IMPACT.
- Then Carol Burns Stoney, PhD, a relationship therapist with more than 20 years’ experience, will lead a session on relationships and setting boundaries for students during IMPACT period on November 10; parents will be given an opportunity to hear from Dr. Stoney at an earlier time, to be announced later.
- Finally, Eli Lebowitz, PhD, associate director of the Anxiety and Mood Disorders Program at the Yale Child Study Center, will present a session on understanding and managing adolescent anxiety. Students will hear from him on December 1 during IMPACT; parents will preview the session on November 30 at 6 p.m.
We look forward to partnering with parents about subjects that matter to our girls. We are available to address concerns as they arise through our deans of students and counseling specialist.
