Changemaker Catalyst award recipient Kate Rose spent the summer interning at Girl Rising, a nonprofit dedicated to changing the way society values girls, in order to enhance their opportunities and empowerment around the world. Kate is majoring in International Development and Political Economy, and is a 2018-2019 Design Thinking Fellow at Taylor.

This summer, I was incredibly lucky to be an intern at the New York office of Girl Rising, a nonprofit with a powerful mission and global reach. They began with the documentary “Girl Rising,” which chronicled the stories of nine girls receiving (or failing to receive) an education, and later transformed into a social movement and nonprofit. Today’s organization uses the nine powerful stories across a variety of mediums, from curriculum programs to media campaigns, with the goal of shifting cultural norms about the value of women and girls. In the communities they enter, they work with on-the-ground teams and community leaders to appropriately accommodate the local culture.  

Although I was struck by the film’s simplicity and power when I first viewed it in 2013, it was Girl Rising’s unique approach to entering communities that drew me to their mission. As an International Development major, my coursework has exposed me to many pitfalls common to development approaches, from the “outside savior” mentality to attempts to change cultural norms, which is seen as accusatory to certain cultures. The film “India’s Daughter,” for example, which exposes a violent gang rape in Delhi, was banned by the Indian government. Taking a different route, Girl Rising celebrates the good that stems from empowerment instead of condemning the negative aspects of society that prevent it. The film is realistic, yet incredibly hopeful, and has been positively received by a broad range of governments, communities, and schools, including India’s Ministry of Women and Child Development. I was confident that this organization recognized its cultural limitations and the complexity of the issues at hand, yet still sought to be a positive force of change.

Once I began my work at Girl Rising, I entered a quick and dynamic workplace environment that required me to structure my own time. Girl Rising sustains a variety of projects at one time, and although most work is done individually, lots of collaboration and fact-checking occurred among the four interns. One project we we worked on was the communication and outreach for the HP Creative Challenge, an international campaign that collected stories of individual actions for gender equality. Another involved creating country and issue fact sheets for Girl Rising’s educator program. I wrote historical and cultural background knowledge blurbs for Pakistan, Thailand, India, Haiti, Sierra Leone, Nepal, and Peru, and in the process of summarizing these complex histories in 120 words or less, sharpened my critical thinking and writing skills. I also translated a website cover page into french, researched grants at the Foundation Center, and led a small case study research project where I scoped two possible countries for Girl Rising expansion.

Although I gained many tangible skills working at Girl Rising, the greatest takeaways were new insights about the international development and nonprofit world. One interesting discovery was the distinction between a “content-creating” and “content-reactive organization,” as explained by a coworker who was new to the nonprofit. She appreciated how Girl Rising’s presence, branding, and strategic content established it as an expert in the field, and other organizations knew to refer to Girl Rising for expertise when an issue came up within their niche. I realized the value of this when I attended a conference with other professionals in New York, where in hearing from others in different fields at a round table discussion, I realized where Girl Rising could offer insight and expertise. This awareness also informs the way I’ll approach my job at the Taylor Center this year. As a Design Thinking fellow, I’ll be very involved in curating the way that the center and its mission is perceived on campus, and hope to establish Taylor as a force of social good and design thinking expertise.

I also became much more aware of the impact of money and grants in the international development world. On an elementary level, it was clear that fundraising was key to all of Girl Rising’s projects, and partnerships were carefully developed over time with varying levels of compromise and accommodation depending on the partner and amount of money provided. It was also a learning experience to learn how a nonprofit’s usage of funding is perceived by others. Girl Rising is unique because although they promote the value of education as a tool for empowerment, none of their money directly buys schools or books, instead going towards producing educator content, videos, media campaigns, and community-specific content. The nonprofit’s impact reports have shown tremendous success, proving that direct products and services are not always the best usage of funding, yet it’s still hard for some critics to see the value of normative change. Reminded of the design thinking process, I saw new value in the process of clearly defining a “design challenge,” where what appears to be needed isn’t always the best solution and the “problem” isn’t always what it appears.

The most key learning for me, however, was the intersection of women’s empowerment with other topics in sustainable development. One amazing thing Girl Rising encouraged interns to do was listen in on calls, attend meetings, and watch fundraising pitches when possible, and at any event we attended, I was reminded of the intersectional nature of community health. Where one link fails, a cohort of related issues also fail in some regard, and women’s education is a particularly crucial link; from the unique challenges faced by women immigrants and refugees to the role women play as caretakers of healthy communities, empowering women has been proven to improve economies, environmental sustainability, child health, and countless other issues. As I apply for internships in coming years and pursue opportunities at Tulane, I look forward to continuing to learn about the intersectionality of gender with other aspects of community health. Empowering women has a positive impact on so many sectors, and I believe this can be used to encourage an agenda of women’s empowerment in more areas of society.

Many thanks to the Taylor Center and staff for providing me this award. My experiences at Girl Rising inspire me to apply my new skills and understanding to my roles at Tulane, and I feel incredibly lucky to have had this opportunity.