YAKIMA, Wash. – A Young Women’s Leadership Summit saw 144 middle school girls, with the hopes of empowering them.
Summit Co-Chair Maggie Hummel said the girls attended different sessions on healthy eating, journaling, personal safety and more, and it was a day for learning and leadership.
There were multiple speakers as well, including a police officer who discussed how to maintain personal and healthy relationships, Hummel said.
Alongside the police officer, a speaker from Healthy Eats discussed healthy eating habits, and the girls attended a yoga class as well, she said.
“They also get the opportunity to go through a store where they can get sanitary items, toilets, these fun items like nail kits and face masks and fun stuff like that,” she said.
Hummel said she hopes the girls were able to learn something from the session, but also have fun.
“The purpose is for female empowerment. It is to bring in middle school girls at a time where, you know, it’s a difficult age and it’s to teach them skills,” she said. “It’s a time to just kind of empower them and lead them on the right path.”
Every aspect of the summit was for the young girls and Hummel said she hopes what they learned at the conference can help them in the future.
“Some of our electives really focus on mental health and alternatives for stress, healthy eating and yoga and journaling, you know, taking that into their every day to help them tackle the stress in their lives,” she said.
Summit Co-Chair Brittany Kaple said the summit is put on by the Junior League of Yakima, which is an organization focusing on empowering young women. The summit is just one of many events they host, but focuses on its younger members.
Kaple said the League’s goal is to create the next generation of empowered leaders who serve the community, and the summit is meant to help young women become comfortable doing so.
She said the summit is important because young girls need to be confident in themselves as they enter their teenage years, where a lot of growth occurs.
“We know that they’re struggling with mental health more than ever before,” she said. “This day is all about giving them the skills so that they feel empowered, they make new connections. They see people that look like them in leadership roles and they leave here spoiled with so many things that they can take home, whether it’s learning really necessary hygiene products and other resources so that they can thrive in their schools when they leave.”
The summit is a yearly event, but is constantly growing. Hummel said she hopes the summit can soon take place twice a year so more girls can attend.
