On campus, many people are wondering what Girls Build is all about. Having seen their new Instagram account and heard about their field trip, students are still not fully informed about the purpose of this organization. Girls Build is an organization that has been at MACES for two years and it has grown with the help of its advisers Mr. Ng, the school librarian, and Mrs. Reyna, the school psychologist. This organization is dedicated to spreading mental health awareness not only in school, but in the community as well. “You can think of it as a club that promotes women empowerment, it encourages girls to cause bigger impacts for their community,” says Mrs. Reyna, the school’s psychologist and co-adviser to Girls Build.
This organization came to be due to the help of the LA Promise Fund, a bigger organization that strives to empower girls from underserved communities in Los Angeles. This fund believed in Girls Build and gave them an opportunity to grow this group into something bigger and meaningful. They leave it up to every school to make a difference and take this organization in the direction they want it to go. At MACES, the young leaders in Girls Build have taken upon the challenge of making a difference for their community by promoting mental health awareness.
Mr. Ng says this began as them just entering contests along with the dance class. Mr. Ng was already involved in the Directing change videos at his other school, and he has encouraged students at MACES to compete in the contest. The Directing Change Video Contest takes in student created short films to serve as an aid for mental health. This has inspired Girls Build to aim to break down the stigma surrounding mental illness, play a role in suicide prevention, raise awareness, and encourage their peers to enter the contest.
The LA Promise Fund helped Girls Build attend a screening of the “Barbie” movie at the Academy Museum, which promoted women empowerment. They are now working with the city of Maywood aiming for a proclamation declaring May as mental health awareness month to bring even more attention from the community and have their message reach a wider audience. Other projects they’ve had include a training that focused on financial literacy with experts from Intuit.
“It’s been a little tricky the last few years, because it’s mostly seniors joining the organization, and when they graduate we have to start all over. So we’re hoping we can bring in more underclassmen so that way it grows a bit more and they can be more involved by the time they become seniors,” says Mrs. Reyna. Girls Build is trying to get more girls from the lower grades to be a part of the organization to make it grow and cause great impacts.
