July 16 2012 – August 5, 2012

Tuition: $4120

Our ninth grade session gives campers a strong personal foundation for the challenges of high school. Girls learn and practice a wide range of skills necessary to communicate and grow as individuals. We prepare girls for the advanced GLI high school programs that require them to collaborate with others and lead in small groups.

Most importantly, this camp helps you form a vision to become the girl you’ve always wanted to be. The program is all about acquiring skills—skills for relationships, communication and conflict. We even teach you skills for making mistakes, accepting criticism and moving on. As always, there are plenty of times when everyone lets loose, choreographs lip synch shows and stays up late having the best conversations ever.

Life at GLI
Our rising 9^th graders graduate to more freedom at camp than ever. This isn’t a repeat of middle school summers! One great item to pack for the ninth grade program is a watch. No one likes to be led around like a kid, and that watch will help you wake yourself up, get places on time and give you the freedom to enjoy camp life. Camp days are full of friends, from brushing your teeth with your hall-mates, to dropping off “love notes” in your friend’s mailbox before bed. In the afternoon, you get some “you time:” your choice of projects, fitness options and crazy evening activities like the spontaneous sing-a-long (Katy Perry anyone?) and GLI Game Shows.

Workshops
Our ninth grade program prepares girls for high school by focusing on courage, a value we think is vital for an authentic life. According to a psychologist who writes about girls, an important aspect of courage is “speaking all of one’s mind by telling one’s heart.” We agree.

We begin this program by examining two stereotypical girl identities: the Good Girl and the Bad Girl. The campers look at the strengths and weakness of both labels and begin defining a new role model: the Real Girl.

Project
At the start of the session, each girl chooses a creative project to focus on for three weeks.  Guided by teaching artists, campers play, improvise and create unique works of art. Last summer’s projects included photography, Girls Make Movies, theater and improvisation, creative writing, sculpture and more.

Trips and Events
During Session Two there are both challenging trips and just-for-fun days. We try out our teamwork abilities on the low-ropes course, and we face our own fears on the high ropes. There are river crossing and raft building challenges to test the communication and collaboration skills we’re learning in workshops.

For fun, we head to a lake to chill and enjoy magazines, music and a bag of Twizzlers. We may walk into town for ice cream or to enjoy a matinee at a local theater.

Arts Intensive
You’re creative, brilliant and ready to explore your experiences in exciting ways.   We get that.  So we’ve invited local artists, writers, and performers to guide you on a three-day long Arts Intensive.  The Arts Intensive projects allow you to recognize, honor and communicate your authentic voice through creative media.  The projects all culminate in a public celebration of artwork for your supportive camp community.  Last year’s projects included inflatable sculptures, original songs, poetry and spoken word pieces.

Food
Every meal is served buffet style. Campers pick from a wide selection of delicious options. Counselors are aware of what makes it onto campers’ plates and request that protein show up a couple times a day. We encourage girls to have at least two or three colors on their plate for lunch and dinner.

Schedule
We keep GLI campers moving!
• 8:45 – Theater games and improvisation
• 9:30 – Morning workshops
• 11:15 – Lunch
• 12:15 – Free time. The highlight of this time is mail! Letters and care packages are distributed, and everyone enjoys an hour of snacking on gummy worms, playing games, reading quietly or just swapping stories.
• 1:15 – Small group advisory discussions
• 2:00 – Pick your art project!
• 4:00 – It’s time to get moving. If it’s hot, we head to the pool. Other choices might include a short hike, yoga, basketball, Pilates, soccer, tennis and more.
• 6:00 – Dinner
• 7:00 – Evenings are 100% fun! Activities include game show night, scavenger hunt, mask making, jewelry making, a trip to the theater or movies, and much more.
• 9:00 – Love notes! Hall time, then we get ready for bed. An adored GLI tradition, Love Notes is the time where we gather in the hall, dance to GLI playlists, and write notes to fellow campers who made our day!

On the weekends, we love sleeping in, watching cartoons and eating breakfast in our PJs! After a morning of tie dye, crafts and bubble contests we might head to to the lake for the day, or snuggle indoors with hot chocolate and a movie.  If the stars are out, we might stay up late to find the Big Dipper.

For more information, please contact Marsha Philitas at marsha@girlsleadership.org or 866-744-9102 Ext 2.