It’s an unfortunate truth that our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students will trail behind non-Indigenous students in many academic and social measures.
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That’s why programs like Girls Academy, which has been rolled out (and officially launched this week) at Tamworth High School and Oxley High School, are so important.
It’s helping to close the gap that exists between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians by creating strong and educated young women.
The Girls Academy program works within the local school system to support high school girls to engage in education and pursue their goals through mentoring, sport, cultural and empowerment programs.
While academic development is at the core of everything the program does, it aims to give its girls as many options and advantages as possible, to help them thrive in whatever career path they choose.
The Oxley girls recently took a three-day field trip to the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, where they learnt how a corporate business was run on a day-to-day basis, covering everything from what the staff in the laundry do, right through to the CEO.
The “big four” the program focuses on are: increasing school attendance, advancing academic and personal achievement, improving year 12 graduation rates and facilitating post-school transition planning.
They have their own classroom, which the girls can visit before and after school, and on their recess and lunch break. It’s a place to gather and study, to motivate and celebrate.
The Girls Academy motto is: “Develop a girl – change a community.”
These young women will be the leaders of the future, and they will go on to further close the gap in whatever field they choose to pursue.
The lessons they learn and the empowerment they gain through this program will be passed on to the next generation, creating a flow on effect – and the proof is in the pudding.
Girls Academy founder and chief executive officer Ricky Grace said a number of the organisation’s staff started out as students in the program.
He looks forward to the day when an Aboriginal women is leading the organisation he founded.
Mr Grace wants to double the number of the girls in the program nationwide by the end of 2017 to 2500, including 800 in NSW.
