Tammy's day job is at Hearst Digital Media, but last fall she launched She's the First as a side project. The organization's director, Christen Brandt, is a rising senior at Syracuse University, and several other college women and young professionals are part of the movement.
I caught up with Tammy to get all the latest details about her organization:
Tell us about how She's the First came to be.
She's
the First is a media campaign supporting girls' education. We encourage
you to unlock the power of your online and offline social networks to
creatively and affordably fundraise for a girl's sponsorship. Organize
a sponsorship as if you were organizing a party! This idea grew from my
work launching DonateMyDress.org, my admiration for The Nike Foundation's Girl Effect, my leadership in the MacDella Cooper Foundation, and my readings on the importance of education, from writers such as Nicholas Kristof and Greg Mortenson.
One day in the shower, the name She's the First
popped into my head, and I went with it. Education breaks barriers,
giving girls the chance to be the "first" to achieve something, from
first to graduate in her family to first woman president of her country
or even continent - look at President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in Liberia.
The more I posted to my Facebook news feed about my passion for girls'
education, the more friends came out of the woodwork wanting to help.
We formed a leadership team, a social media presence, and the rest is
history.
What do you want to accomplish with She's the First?
I
want She's the First to grow uncontrollably and for girls all around
the world who are stuck at home, unable to afford an education, to find
out that they can now attend school. I want those girls to then dream
bigger than themselves and use their education to become leaders in
their community, so that they can later support their children's
education, and end the cycle of poverty. I want to see those girls
become change-makers who revamp the infrastructure of their nation, so
that mind-numbing, unjust statistics -- like the fact that 500 million
women and girls in the developing world can't read or write -- don't
exist anymore. I want to see them learn technology so that they can
communicate with their peers around the world, so that we can exchange
stories, share our visions, and ultimately achieve them together.
How can young women in New York get involved with or support She's the First?
Start by following us on Twitter and liking us on Facebook, so you keep tabs on the action, research, and ideas propelling the movement forward. Then, we challenge you to host your own fun
fundraiser with friends to sponsor a girl. It can be as easy as
inviting your friends to dinner and asking for a suggested donation, as
creative as donating a portion of proceeds from a performance or sale
you're involved in, or as athletic as running a race and collecting
small pledges. When you organize your fundraiser, feel free to contact me
for help on selecting a beneficiary in the She's the First network, and
also to share your success in the She's the First blog.
How did hear about Urban Girl Squad?
My friend Selena Soo invited me to the Columbia Women's Business Society 2010 Conference, where Urban Girl Squad founder Amanda Hofman spoke on a panel. I was curious whether she had ever hosted fundraising events in the city, and we arranged a phone call so I could tell her more about She's the First. She said Urban Girl Squad was experimenting with the idea of adding a charitable element to events and she'd keep She's the First in mind. She was true to her word! About a month later, Amanda emailed me and said she wanted to donate proceeds from the raffle at an upcoming Urban Girl Squad cocktail party at Polar Lounge toward a sponsorship via She's the First!
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