Girl powers big on campus

Charlotte Community School for Girls offers single-gender education opportunity Boys aren't allowed at of Charlotte Community School for Girls, and Takerah Lewis, 10, really likes it that way. She expects to learn more without the distractions. "I am looking forward to getting better in language and writing," she said. Takerah and 17 other girls were chosen for the inaugural class of CCSG, a college preparatory tuition-free private school for girls from low-income families. Takerah has big dreams. She aspires to be a teacher, a fashion designer and a doctor. This year she will have the unique opportunity to incorporate the things that interests her into her curriculum, so she can begin narrowing career options before going off to Yale, her college of choice. Hafsa Abdul Rahman, 10, is also a CCSG scholar. She likes that everything at her new school makes her feel good about herself. Each morning students begin with positive affirmations, reciting "I am beautiful. I am intelligent," aloud. They pledge to "respect each other's opinions and ideas" and vow that they "can do anything." "It feels good to me. When I say I am beautiful, I really feel I am beautiful," Hafsa said. While attending public school, she felt ostracized by classmates who would make fun of her for her religious beliefs and wardrobe. "At my old school, it was a lot of drama," she said. It's all behind Hafsa now, who says she feels embraced by the girls at CCSG, who celebrate their unique differences. CCSG founder Cathy Sheafor said many times discussions about all-girl schools tend to focus on the absence of the distractions of boys, but she Rosetta Stone Software believes that argument misses the point. "The real strength of single gender education is the empowering component. It's not about the absence of boys, but the presence of girls," she said. "We are not about excluding boys; we are about empowering girls." Sheafor said that in allgirl environments, students are more likely to speak up and share opinions. They take more risks and are more confident. "Academically, girls perform better in a singlegender environment than they do in an environment with boys. They out score their co-education counterparts on the SAT," Sheafor said. "They are more likely to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics." Sheafor plans to expand CCSG through the eighth grade. She believes her students will be well prepared to enter into high school, in a private or public setting, because they will develop leadership skills that will enable them to thrive in any environment. Sheafor, who struggled through an unpleasant middle school experience, chose to home school her twin daughters when they reached middle school. She said the experience was valuable. "I learned the value of asking a child her opinion," she said. "They were engaged at a whole different level when they had a say in what they were learning." She integrated that powerful insight into the curriculum at CCSG. Students were asked what they wanted to learn in fifth grade. Their responses were compiled into a checklist to be incorporated into the curriculum this year. Sheafor said she is focusing on grades 5-8 because those are critical years for girls. "Middle school is a difficult time for girls.

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