Courage for Change workshop resurrected after 25 years

On Saturday, March 2, 85 girls spent their morning laughing together and bonding over issues of female empowerment at the Courage to Change Workshop. 

The workshop was planned by art teacher Leah Aguayo, attendance secretary Mandy Armes, health teacher Amy Obenour, physical education teacher Kerri Slover and media arts elective teacher Cathy Leather. Held from 9 am till noon, it was a place for girls to discuss issues facing girls on this campus. 

According to Aguayo, the preliminary planning of the workshop was sprung from her weekly Monday meetings in the ceramics room with ten girls to talk about issues and concerns for young women on campus.

After meeting with the group of girls since September, Aguayo amassed a load of information about the issues that girls on campus face today. 

“I have a big pad of newsprint paper and I asked them about what drives them crazy around here, and filled page after page after page of issues and concerns. From there, we designed the workshop,” Aguayo said. 

In addition to the girls in the core group, 75 girls attended the workshop, for a total of 85 participants. 

Aguayo set up the workshop to be as casual and comfortable as possible by encouraging the girls to wear their sweatpants and pajamas, making the Small Gym a cozy environment. 

“We had a continental breakfast of juice, fruit, bagels and muffins. It was really casual and everyone wore comfy clothes, and since it was a nice day everybody ate their breakfast outside,” Aguayo said. “When the event started we had cheerleader mats down at a diagonal in the Small Gym and we brought my office couch and comfy chairs, in addition to some beautiful banners.”

According to Aguayo, the setup came out just as she had envisioned, and the day was filled with “fun activities like 30-second dance parties and icebreakers.” In addition, the workshop focused on physical and mental well-being. 

“We talked about issues such as diet and nutrition and having a healthy balance in your life, emotional health and getting enough sleep,” Aguayo said. 

The 10 girls from the core group pitched in to talk about pressing issues that many girls on this campus could relate to. 

“The girls [in the group] took over from the fashion show on, and they talked about social media, girl empowerment, making the right decisions and being afraid,” Aguayo said. 

The girls who attended the workshop also left with a gift. 

“Everybody who came got a goodie bag at the end and it was filled with some pretty cool stuff, and everybody got a T-shirt that was designed by the group,” Aguayo said. 

She isn’t new to hosting workshops for young women on campus; twenty-five years ago, Aguayo ran a battery of them that were hugely successful. 

“Twenty-five years I hosted this same workshop called ‘Women’s Awareness’ that started out with 75 girls, and over three years it grew to be [attended by] over three hundred girls,” Aguayo said. “During the second year the boys [wanted their own workshop] and we had a guys workshop called ‘For Guys Only.’ Then in the third year we had several girl workshops and we also had a combination workshop with both guys and girls.”

Aguayo noted that the issues discussed during the workshops 25 years ago were very different than the issues stressed during the workshop this year. 

“Anorexia and bulimia were rampant on this campus back then,” Aguayo said. “Now, the girls are very healthy, and it’s like the polar opposite. Girls still want to know about health and nutrition, but we have different issues now.”

Overall, Aguayo found the workshop to be a huge success and thought it made a positive impact on the girls who attended. 

“The workshop was magical; at the end we thanked the girls who came for having the courage to change, and that it would take baby steps and we all had to support each other to be kind and to be compassionate,” Aguayo said.  

Aguayo decided to do the workshop again after 25 years because she “had been feeling a need for several years to bring it back.”

Junior Katie Truong, who is part of the group of girls who met with Aguayo every week, has had an extremely positive experience with the group and the workshop because of the way they heightened her awareness about certain issues facing young women.

“Being in this group has made a great impact in my life because it has brought issues that girls are currently facing today to my attention,” Truong said. “I knew that these issues existed, but having a workshop on them brought my awareness to a whole new level.”

Truong hopes that the other girls who attended the workshop had an experience as positive as she did. 

“The girls in this group are so caring and unique in their own ways that they brought their own styles to the workshop and made it fun for everyone who attended,” Truong said. “I really hope that Courage to Change has made a positive impact on all the girls who got to attend the workshop.”