Career Support for Girls

Dream It, Be It: Career Support for Girls helps girls grow up to be strong, successful, happy adults. Dream It, Be It is designed for girls in secondary school who face obstacles to their future success. It provides girls with access to professional role models, career education and the resources to live their dreams. Working in a small group setting, the program provides participants with the information and resources they want and need to be successful.

2023 Participants enjoying the program.

Beginning in 2018, Soroptimist International of Saratoga County has sponsored and produced Dream It Be it: Career Support for Girls, which targets girls in secondary school who face obstacles to their future success.  It provides girls with access to professional role models, career education and resources to live their dreams.   Career support includes help and assistance to pursue an occupation that will offer opportunities for long-term success.  Although we do not think all girls will know what they want to do for the rest of their lives, the skills they learn in Dream It, Be It will help them regardless of the career they choose to pursue or when they choose to pursue it.

Recent participants provided positive feedback with these statements:

• This program has been focused, amazing and fun.
• I’m more focused on striving to meet my goals.
• I feel I can think more about where I want to go, rather than where I’ve been.
• I’m inspired by the women who created this experience for us.
• Push yourself-stand for what you believe-get your voice heard.

“Graduation” with Shen’s Asst. Superintendent Dr. Cecily Wilson-Turner.

The curriculum was developed after a comprehensive review of the literature that pointed to the need for this training from multiple perspectives.  Consider the wage gap, for example.  While the gap between men and women’s salaries has shrunk over the last 30 years, women continue to make less money than men, while progress towards equality stagnates.   A 2023 news release from the NYS Department of Labor issued on Equal Pay Day, notes the following: “In the U.S., women who work full-time, year-round, are paid an average of 83.7 percent as much as men, which amounts to a difference of $10,000 per year.  The gaps are even larger for many women of color and women with disabilities.”

With this and other factors serving as barriers to achievement, the curriculum covers the following topics:  Discovering Your Dreams, Exploring Careers, Creating Achievable Goals, Rising Above Obstacles, Turning Failure into Success, Balancing Your Stress, and Putting Dreams into Action.

To implement the program, Soroptimists has partnered with a variety of organizations to identify participants and provide supportive services.   For example, the 2018 program collaborated with the Saratoga YMCA, which provided conference facilities.  Other partners over the years have included the National Museum of Dance, Saratoga-Support-A-Scholar and Saratoga County Commissioners. The school systems of Ballston Spa, Galway, Saratoga and Shenendehowa along with the Academy of Holy Names in Albany have served as educational partners and provided recruitment and other support services.

If we can dream it, we can be it!

With this community approach, has the program made a difference?  From feedback such as the comments listed above and the level of engagement displayed in the photos taken during this year’s program, we say, YES!  DIBI is beneficial for our participants, offering them unique opportunities they may not otherwise have the chance to experience.  We can’t wait to introduce Dream It Be It to our next group of students.