This year, we’re taking it up a notch.

GRACE has increased its students by 50%, to 15 pre-teen girls for our Summer 2017 program. We are on a roll with the level of enthusiasm for the program, for the progress we see in last year’s students and how many industry and discipline experts are interested to be a positive part of the GRACE methodology for improving the lives of young girls.

As the photo gallery will attest, our programs are better than ever, and the girls are stepping it up in their commitment and level of engagement. All good news.

If you would like to learn more about how you can get involved, visit our Support page. We’d love to speak with you about the GRACE vision and how you can join us to help change the world, one girl at a time.

Bridget Horan Bell of Bridget Horan Bell Photography welcomed the Class of 2017 to her studio to portray the beauty of this year’s Summer program. With a little hair and makeup touch up, the girls posed under a huge maple tree where Bridget captured their beauty and personality. Ten of our girls returned from the 2016 program while we welcomed five new girls to the 2017 program.

Photo caption: Sitting: Annette, Jael, Allie, Lexi. Front row left: Sarah, Holly, Myra, Emily, Mya, Jayden, Amanda, Ms. Ana. Back row left: Kimberly, Gina, Ayalina, Jazmyn, Aliyah, Angelina, Ms. Donna, Jazmine, Jess

The 2017 Summer Program, celebrated by the theme One Big Beautiful World, included activities planned to expand our girls worldview and to appeal to their dreams and aspirations. The GRACE girls toured the Delaware River to learn how to take better care of our environment via an aquatic science and history lesson (STEM) from the staff and crew of the SPLASH steamboat floating classroom . We learned a choreographed song and dance routine to the song Brave by Sara Bareilles and taught by Cherry Hill Performing Art Center’s executive director Sarah Duvall Pearson.

NJ State Troopers Alina Gutierrez-Spies and Stacey Lloyd (Sgt) visited our GRACE girls on Day One to deliver an uplifting, hopeful message of GRIT – finding passion through perseverance. Dr. Leela Jackson, Psy.D., Psychologist in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavorial Sciences at CHOP taught the girls the role and importance of developing a healthy self esteem as life throws its challenges our way. Empowering Change in You’s Katherine Ann Nuyens, MA, CH, CBT visited GRACE to teach the girls how to slow down and learn how to be grateful through our breathing. We learned mindful meditation from Anna Marie Hrivnak, M.Ed.

Wealth manager and advisor Suzy Egan, MBA, Finance taught the girls the importance of financial fitness through saving and investing. Suzy walked the girls through selecting a few stocks of their own to witness the equity market for themselves first hand.

All in all, our 2017 Summer program has been packed with diverse, exciting activities to appeal to the interests and needs of our GRACE girls, and to support their growth and well-being for many years to come.