WJ’s diverse population of clubs has been growing over the years. The types of clubs range from science to art to music. A fairly new club is the Girl Up Club. Katherine Simmons, who teaches AP US history and is in charge of senior projects, started the group in order to help promote education for girls in third world countries where women and men do not have equal rights.
In the spring of her sophomore year, club president junior Ellie Spector teamed up with Simmons in the hopes of creating change through women’s education.
“My friends and I really wanted to do something meaningful, and we found out about the problems people are facing in third world countries and we thought this was a cause that was passionate for us,” Spector said.
Simmons said that she wants to help the Girl Up Club grow into a more popular club and make it more known to promote their big idea of educating girls.
“The members of this club decided to create the club because they felt very strongly about girls getting education throughout the world. The whole purpose of this club is to help girls get funding and support to go to school,” Simmons said.
This year, the club officers hope to hold multiple fundraisers and events to promote these women in need. Spector and the other officers have chosen to raise funds to be able to give bicycles to girls to get to school in less-fortunate places.
“This year we hope to raise enough money to donate 300 bicycles to girls through a fundraiser called SchoolCycles,” Spector said.
Girl Up hopes to gain more interest and create more knowledge about themselves within the school and the general public this year.
