"Picture Your Potential"
2008 Conference
Saturday, March 22, 2008
MSU Strand Union Building
8:00 am – 4:30 pm
Conference Photos
Conference Sponsors
Survey
 This year the conference theme was "Picture Your Potential" which tied together our Keynote Speaker Anne Sherwood, an international local photojournalist back to our conference. The girls felt they really
connected with Anne and loved hearing all of her inspiring words of advice to follow your gut and not your peers! The girls enjoyed seeing Anne's work in a slideshow of her photographs.
The workshop focus areas were: Women In Science, Global and Social Awareness, Art and Movement and Stress Busters. The evaluations provided great feedback on the conference and the girls were very pleased with the quality of the workshops this year. One attendee commented " I found out stuff that I never would've known about myself and about others" Several evaluations said this was the best conference yet! We had 79 girls attend the conference! There were 10 communities represented: Bozeman, Big Sky, Charlo, Dillon, Gallatin Gateway, Lewistown, Pray, Seeley Lake, Silver Bow, and Whitehall.
 For the first time ever at the Girls for a Change conference we had a workshop for women! Pat Alea is a frequent speaker and advisor for professionals on managing key challenges and offers expertise on how to recognize and grow your leadership capacity. Pat is co-author of The Best Work of Your Life (Penguin Putnam) and is a founder and co-manager of the Women's Executive Leadership Summit, at the University of Wisconsin Advanced Studies in Business. Thirty-two community women attended the women's workshop and we received feedback that Pat Alea was an expert in her field and the workshop, geared especially to the challenges of women today, helped create a personal plan to move you toward your important goals. The only suggestion was to make it longer next year!
At the conference the girls were asked to express their thoughts in writing on the question, 'What do girls want to change?" Their responses are displayed for all the girls to read. Some of the most powerful responses we received were:
"We want to change what we should be into what we want to be."
"Risk more than others think is safe, care more than others think is wise, dream more than others think is practical, expect more than others think is possible."
"Girls want to change perceptions of beauty from the outer kind to the inner kind."
We feel the conference was extremely successful and very well organized. We plan to outreach even more next year to local and surrounding girls.
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Survey
Did you participate in any way in the conference as a parent, volunteer, presenter or conference attendee?
If so, please take our survey to help us make the conference even better next year!
Just click here – it takes less than 5 minutes!! |
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Special thanks to our 2008 Conference Sponsors:
Thrive
Turner Foundation
Montana State University
Pennmont Foundation
Classic Ink
Bozeman Deaconess Hospital
Bozeman Youth Initiative
Women's Foundation of Montana
Cathy Haggerty - Penny Hatten
Lila Masters – Elizabeth Ringer
Avant Floral
Donna Chimera/Wolfstar
Denise Stenzel Photography
To be a conference sponsor, call 406-587-3840. |
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Selected comments on the workshops.
"The Women In Science part of the conference was incredible, I loved Nerdy Girls!"
"My favorite workshop was the iron goddess because we really got to be creative and have freedom!"
"I have learned new things that I will never forget!"
"This conference made me a stronger woman!"
See complete list of workshops held at the conference. |
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Conference Fundraiser "Through My Eyes: Community Ties" Photo Journal Show was held Thursday, November 15, 2007 at the Audi Dealership, 1800 W. Main Street, Bozeman (see details).
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Keynote Speaker, Anne Sherwood is a freelance photojournalist based in Bozeman, Montana covering stories that range from the civil war in Liberia to the bison cull in Yellowstone National Park, Sherwood has traveled to all 50 states, and more than 50 countries on six continents. Her work regularly appears in such publications as the New York Times, National Geographic Adventure, and Smithsonian.
In 2003, Sherwood was awarded a prestigious Pew Fellowship in International Journalism, sending her on a long-term assignment to South Africa where she documented everyday life in a shantytown while staying with a family in their tin shack.
A graduate of Princeton University, Sherwood began her journalism career at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics. Following graduate school at Ohio University's School of Visual Communication, she shot more than 1000 assignments as a staff photographer for the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. She devoted herself fulltime to her freelance career in 2000.
Although she's never been known to turn down a plane ticket, Sherwood finds as much inspiration in her own backyard as she does on the other side of the planet. She lives in a 1915 Bozeman bungalow with her husband, Otto.
Click here to see Anne's work. |
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