Girls' Education

International Day of the Girl 2021: Digital Generation. Our Generation.

International Day of the Girl 2021. Digital Generation. Our Generation.
Student Leadership Network
October 10, 2021

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we all swiftly transitioned to digital platforms to study, work, and connect with loved ones. However, according to UNICEF, approximately 2.2 billion young people still do not have internet access at home. Moreover, girls are less likely to use and own devices, or gain access to tech-related skills training and jobs. This divide means that young women do not have the same access to digital resources which are crucial for reaching their full potential and advancing their dreams of an education and career in the 21st century.

This year, in line with the theme for International Day of the Girl 2021 – Digital Generation. Our Generation – we are turning the spotlight on some of the girls and young women in our network who are using tech and digital platforms to change this narrative. These digital changemakers are making tech skills more accessible to their peers, using new media to highlight the need for change, and leveraging online tools to make an impact in their community. Read on to meet some of our network’s digital champions!

Tech Inclusion Project: Growing Diversity In Tech

Tamanna and Sasha discovered coding as students at The Young Women’s Leadership School (TYWLS) of Astoria, and since then have continued to grow passionate about computer science. Thanks to a curriculum that emphasizes a STEM education (a core pillar of TYWLS), both students are in the perfect environment to pursue their interests in coding and technology.

However, they soon realized that not all students have access to the same resources and support when it comes to learning about computer science, much less opportunities to explore the possibility of tech careers. When they observed that a school two blocks away from their own didn’t offer any computer science courses or curriculum, they were motivated to found a new youth-led organization, Tech Inclusion Project. 

With guidance from their mentors and TYWLS teachers, Andy Jordan and Allison Gaia, the organization aspires to develop a cooperative and collaborative space for students to teach and learn from each other through workshops and programs including the Winter Enrichment Program for 8th grade students and Summer Tech Discovery Program for 9th and 10th grade students. The group is also working on launching a new app called Techsify which will help connect students who are interested in tech careers to connect with professionals in the field.

Tech Inclusion Project was also named as a winner of one of SL Network partner organizations, Riley’s Way Call for Kindness 2021, an annual program that supports teen-led projects that tackle pressing equity and social justice issues. The recognition comes with a financial award that will support Tamanna and Sasha in building their program. Learn more about Tech Inclusion Project on their recently launched website.

Tigerlily: An Emerging Voice in Digital News & Media

Whether reporting on being a teacher and parent during the pandemic, interviewing the Class of 2021, or investigating slavery ties at Ivy League institutions, Tigerlily (CollgeBound Initiative Class of 2021) possesses all of the traits of an effective reporter who can take a complex issue or topic, and distill it into a thoughtful piece that is accessible to readers.

As a child, her love for storytelling competed with her dyslexia but she found her place and voice as a student at our CBI partner school, East Side Community High School, where she played a pivotal role in resurrecting the school newspaper and served as one of the editors-in-chief during her senior year. The East Sider News provided her and her peers with an important platform to share their perspectives and ultimately inspire their classmates to advocate and act for change.

Now in her first year at Yale University, where she is pursuing studies in Journalism, Tigerlily will be writing for the Yale Daily News. Inspired by two of her favorite journalists, Nikole Hannah-Jones and James B. Stewart, Tigerlily hopes to use journalism on campus as a means to start conversations and make change. 

Tigerlily and her fellow New York Times scholarship recipients pose for a picture. Tigerlily is in the center.Her creativity and potential in the field of journalism even caught the attention of The New York Times, who awarded Tigerlily with a scholarship to help finance each year of college and support her goal of building a brighter future for herself, her family, and community. We are so excited to see how Tigerlily’s natural curiosity and passion for social justice will continue to intersect with digital media especially as new technology and ways to share our stories continue to emerge everyday. 

Digital Media Pioneers at Girls Leadership Academy of Wilmington (GLOW)

This is a screenshot from a new feature about GLOW Academy. A person is holding a clapperboard that says 'Digital Media Studio' Take 1 GLOW Academy.Students at our Young Women’s Leadership Network affiliate school, Girls Leadership Academy of Wilmington (GLOW) will have an incredible opportunity this school year to learn all about television and film production, digital media, and journalism thanks to a new digital media program in partnership with Sony Pictures and its Global Social Justice Fund.

The program will be led by digital communications specialist, Michael Frederik, who says that “Digital media is obviously something that we all participate in more so I think providing these girls with the opportunity to be creators instead of just viewers is really going to strengthen what they can do in the community and strengthen their voice.”

Students in the program will have plenty of opportunities for hands-on experience with creating content, producing in-house newscasts, and short films. They will even have the support of the cast and crew from the Netflix series ‘Outer Banks’ who will act as mentors in a virtual capacity as well as on campus. As students develop their digital and storytelling skills, they will be able to see more possible paths for themselves in the future. Read more about the digital media program at GLOW.

Kristen Gordon: Leveraging Tech To Launch A New Career And Make An Impact

In 2017, Unlike other seniors at Spelman College who were still applying for jobs, Kristen Gordon (TYWLS ‘14) had just finished a summer teaching fellowship and was offered a teaching job as soon as she graduated from college. This allowed her to fully enjoy the experience of her final year at Spelman and when she graduated in 2018, Kristen went on to become a 5th grade history teacher at an all-boys school in Brooklyn.

Kristen is standing in a classroom at the all-boys school she used to teach at. Students are raising their hands, eager to participate.It was two years into her teaching career when the COVID-19 pandemic would force everyone to adapt to virtual work and learning. Like many people during the pandemic, Kristen reflected on her career and the kind of impact she could make in her community. She came to realize that while she loved being in the classroom with students, she wanted to explore what kind of impact she could make on young people outside of the classroom.

Though Kristen was fortunate to secure a job opportunity before college graduation, this also meant that she never had a need to update her resume, submit a cover letter, or go through the interview process. But, as luck and timing would have it, Kristen received an email offering Spelman alumni a chance to enroll in a career booster workshop series with Braven. 

Kristen knew this was a perfect opportunity for the moment and immediately enrolled. “The Braven workshop came at the right time and it was the perfect safe space  for me to ask any questions about how to get to the next stage in my career,” says Kristen. Through a hybrid of self-paced online learning modules and live Zoom discussions, Braven provided resources with everything from how to refresh a resume, application trackers, and how to keep work samples organized. The workshop also opened Kristen’s eyes to the ways that social media could be a powerful tool for making connections and building her career. Kristen says,  “I had made a LinkedIn account years ago but never bothered to  update it. With Braven, I walked away with tips on how to make my profile relevant but also how to make it more accessible for employers and companies to easily find me.”

Kristen Gordon with Girls Education team 2021Even in the middle of a pandemic and while socially distancing, Kristen was able to use everything she learned in order to land what she calls her dream job as the Manager of The Young Women’s Leadership Schools (TYWLS). As a TYWLS alumna herself, this job gives her a chance to support her sisters and help usher in changes that she and her friends would have liked to have seen as teenagers. “My dream as the TYWLS Manager is to see my work create positive changes that become a permanent part of TYWLS’ history and Student Leadership Network’s impact.”

Read more about Kristen and her educational journey in our Leaders Then & Now alumni series. 

How SL Network Supports Gender Equity

Twenty-five years ago, our founders Ann and Andrew Tisch had a vision to provide girls growing up in underserved communities with a high-quality college preparatory education based on the finest private school models. Since the opening of our flagship school, The Young Women’s Leadership School of East Harlem, in 1996, we have since opened and inspired dozens of all-girls public schools across the country.

Bloomberg volunteers and TYWLS students work on a python coding exercise via Google Meets.Our Whole Girl Education framework supports girls and gender-expansive youth in four core areas including leadership, early college and career awareness, health and wellness, and STEM. Together with the generous support of our donors, volunteers, and community partners, our students are afforded opportunities to see themselves studying and pursuing careers in fields that have traditionally been male-dominated. In fact, our TYWLS students are graduating college with STEM degrees at nearly twice the rate of their female peers nationally. As we’ve seen in the stories here – and which we see and hear about everyday – the digital gap is getting smaller and our girls are at the forefront of that change! 

Learn more about our Girls’ Education programs and sign up for our newsletter to hear the latest news and updates from our network, including stories like this.

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Brad Ruskin

Board Chair

Brad Ruskin joined Student Leadership Network’s Board of Directors in 2014 and was elected Board Chair in 2023. He believes passionately in equity for all students.

Brad is a Partner at Proskauer Rose LLP, and has tried a significant number of high profile, headline-generating cases to verdict, each one with a complete victory for Proskauer’s clients on issues ranging from so-called “bet-the-company” antitrust challenges to questions of Russian constitutional and military law. He currently serves as a Director of the Legal Aid Society, the nation’s oldest and largest legal services provider to the indigent. He also serves on its Executive Committee. He is a frequently published author of articles, has taught a graduate school class at NYU’s Tisch School, and has testified before legislative and other bodies concerning the administration of justice and court operations in New York State.

Beth Cohen

Senior Managing Director, Growth Strategy and Development

Beth H. Cohen is passionate about connecting people, ideas, and resources to create a more equitable world. Throughout her career, she has successfully managed teams for various impactful organizations to generate over $150M.

For the past decade, Beth has worked to generate support for initiatives that allow young people across the U.S. to gain access to transformative educational opportunities. In September 2022, she joined Student Leadership Network as Senior Managing Director of Growth, Strategy, and Development. Previously, Beth served as Vice President of External Relations at New Classrooms. At New Classrooms, she led the fundraising team to raise over $80M to support the growth and expansion of innovative learning models. Before that, Beth served as Vice President of Leadership Gifts at Teach for America, where she cultivated the organization’s largest national supporters and champions.

Early in her career, Beth focused on international poverty issues. From 2001-2011, she was Director of the Synergos Institute’s Global Philanthropists Circle, a dynamic network of leading philanthropists addressing questions of strategy, meaning, and impact.  Previously, she worked with Catholic Relief Services as Senior Program Manager in Lima, Peru, and as an Internal Program Auditor. As an Internal Program Auditor, she assessed the effectiveness of diverse programs in Africa, Latin America, and the Balkans. Beth also worked as a Change Management Consultant for Andersen Consulting, where she designed and developed training programs for public sector clients in Texas and Puerto Rico.

Beth holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a joint Master’s degree in Public Affairs and Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, teenage daughters, and fluffy bernedoodle.

Sara Clarke

Chief Operating Officer

Sara C. Clarke is the Chief Operating Officer of Student Leadership Network. As a dedicated TYWLS volunteer and active contributor for 15 years, Sara is delighted to join the organization to apply her collaborative leadership and business acumen to help drive increased scale and impact. She brings over 20 years of experience at the confluence of strategic analysis, project management, and talent development. Sara has a proven commitment to equity and access to opportunity through decades of volunteer leadership focused on literacy, education, and career advancement.

Sara was most recently the Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy, Analysis, and Collaboration at Showtime Networks Inc. She oversaw an adaptable, solution-oriented team, providing competitive analysis and strategic recommendations that helped Showtime exceed its performance targets. Earlier in her career, Sara was a consultant for Accenture in the Media and Entertainment practice. She serves as Co-President of the HBS African-American Alumni Association and has also served on the Board of Directors of the New York Chapter of Women in Cable Telecommunications, chairing the award-winning Prime Access Executive Mentoring program and community service committee.

Sara holds a master’s degree from Harvard Business School in Business Administration, and a bachelor’s degree with honors in Modern Culture and Media from Brown University.

Meg Kayman

Managing Director, Finance and Administration

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Meg is the Managing Director of Finance and Administration and has been with the organization since March 2009.  During that period, the organization has grown from a budget of $3.5 million to $11.0 million. She is part of the Administration Team which is responsible for building infrastructure to support the growing needs of the organization.

Prior to Student Leadership Network, Meg worked in the Financial Services Industry including positions as an equity research analyst at Goldman Sachs and a senior research analyst at General Electric’s Commercial Finance Division.  She also has been an active volunteer with numerous non-profit organizations and a board member of the HIV Law Project from 2005 to 2013.  She holds a B.A. in Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management from Michigan State University and an M.B.A. in Finance from New York University.

Rob Robinson

Senior Managing Director, CollegeBound Initiative

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Robert Robinson is the Senior Managing Director of CollegeBound Initiative (CBI). Prior to joining Student Leadership Network’s central office team in 2008, he served as director of college counseling for CBI at two Brooklyn high schools: Juan Morel Campos and Middle College High School at Medgar Evers College. As a college counselor, Robert worked primarily with first-generation students of color with the goal of preparing them academically and financially for college enrollment. Before joining CBI, Robert served as an Assistant Director of Undergraduate Admissions at his Alma Mater, New York University (NYU) for nearly four years where he worked specifically with the Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) in an effort to increase minority and financially disadvantaged student enrollment.

Robert received both his Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science and his Master of Arts in Higher Education Administration from NYU.  He has also spent a summer in South Africa where he had the opportunity to study higher education and social reform. Robert prides himself on being an active member of his community.  He has volunteered with various non-profit organizations such as Grand Street Settlement and Publicolor. As a member of the New York State Association for College Admissions Counseling (NYSACAC), he has served as a Conference Presenter, Workshop Moderator and Planning Committee member. He has also served as a Summer Institute Mentor where his responsibilities included training new high school and college admissions counselors.

Laura Rebell Gross

Senior Managing Director, Girls’ Education National Team

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Laura Rebell Gross is the Senior Managing Director for the Girls’ Education National Team — comprising The Young Women’s Leadership Schools (TYWLS) and Young Women’s Leadership Network (YWLN) — which serves more than 10,000 students every year. A leader in the education field for decades, Laura implements a vision for developing innovative programs that enrich students’ lives, create experiential leadership opportunities, and build a path to college. Her expertise is widely recognized and she has been honored by Jewish Women International and The Center for the Women of New York. Laura is a national speaker and expert on girls’ public education.

To impact the lives of girls beyond New York City, Laura co-founded the Young Women’s Charter Prep School of Rochester, a YWLN affiliate, and takes the lead in identifying and establishing new school affiliates nationwide. Notably, Laura’s path to leadership started as a public school teacher, including serving as an English teacher at SL Network’s flagship school in East Harlem for six years.  She earned a BA from Tufts University, an MAT from Brown University, and has completed coursework toward an Ed. D. in Curriculum and Teaching at Teacher’s College, Columbia University and the Warner School, University of Rochester.

Jon Roure

Executive VP & Chief Innovation Officer

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Jon Roure is the Executive Vice President & Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) for the Student Leadership Network. As the organization’s first CIO, Jon oversees program planning and implementation across the network. He continues to provide overall leadership to CollegeBound Initiative (CBI) while developing the work streams that support the organization’s strategic planning efforts. This includes increased focus and programming around alumni engagement, research and evaluation, and national expansion via Young Women’s Leadership Network affiliate schools.

Prior to this year, Jon served as the Senior Managing Director of CBI for many years and totals decades of college counseling and management experience in both the higher education and nonprofit sectors. Jon began his career at Columbia University as an Early Intervention Initiative Coordinator for the Double Discovery Program and a College Advisor for Columbia’s Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP). In 2001, Jon was hired by SL Network (formerly Young Women’s Leadership Network) as one of four inaugural counselors to pilot CBI in some of New York City’s Title 1 public high schools.  He served as a CBI director of college counseling at Health Opportunities High School for almost five years where he worked to build a college-going culture with its families, faculty, and staff that helped guide nearly 400 students to college.

Jon holds a B.A. in Sociology (1998) with a minor in Professional Youth Work from Rutgers University and an M.A. in Student Personnel Administration (1999) from Teachers College, Columbia University.  He is a proud alumnus of the Educational Opportunity Fund Program (EOF) at Rutgers University and is an example of what opportunity and access to higher education can do for first generation students.

Lesley Guggenheim

Chief Operating Officer

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Prior to joining Student Leadership Network Lesley spent 15 years supporting school systems, schools, and educators across the country to ensure students in under-resourced schools have access to the excellent education they deserve. She began her career working at – and later leading – the NYC Teaching Fellows (NYCTF) program and later became a Partner and then a Vice President at TNTP (formerly The New Teaching Project). Lesley has a BA in political science from Union College and an MPA in non-profit management from New York University’s Wagner School.

Yolonda Marshall

Chief Executive Officer

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Yolonda Marshall has committed nearly two decades of her life working to ensure that children growing up in underserved communities across the country receive the education they deserve.  She is Student Leadership Network’s first-ever Chief Executive Officer charged with overseeing the management of the organization’s $13M budget, leading the implementation of the organization’s strategic direction, operations and ensuring that the organization is a great place to work and grow.

Prior to joining Student Leadership Network, Mrs. Marshall served as the Deputy Chief Officer, Regional Programs for New Leaders; an organization whose mission is to ensure high academic achievement for all children, especially students in poverty and students of color, by developing transformational school leaders and advancing the policies and practices that allow great leaders to succeed.  In this role, Mrs. Marshall was responsible for managing a team of Executive Directors who led all local program implementation, client engagement and management of 70+ staff across the country.

Mrs. Marshall began her education non-profit career with Teach For America where she held a number of leadership roles on their national development and human assets team, and also served as Interim Executive Director of the Greater Philadelphia region. Prior to joining Teach For America, Mrs. Marshall had a 14 year career with Showtime Networks Inc where she honed her sales and marketing skills, provided strategic direction to the nation’s top cable companies and managed a team of marketing specialists that created and executed comprehensive marketing plans to help launch critically acclaimed and Emmy award winning programming.

Mrs. Marshall received her BS degree in Marketing from Tuskegee University and her MBA with a concentration in Marketing and Media Management from Columbia Business School.

Ann Rubenstein Tisch

Founder and President

A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Ann began a 19-year career in broadcast journalism at WIBW-TV in Topeka, Kansas. She then moved to WCOO-TV in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and later joined NBC Network News as a national correspondent, where she developed a strong interest in educational issues.

After covering dozens of education stories for the network and reading and studying data on single-sex education, she was inspired to create an all-girls inner-city public school to serve disadvantaged families. In 1996, with the unanimous approval of the New York City Board of Education, Ann turned her idea into a reality and opened The Young Women’s Leadership School (TYWLS) of East Harlem – the first public all-girls school to open in the United States in 30 years. Her vision was to provide students growing up in underserved communities a high-quality college preparatory education modeled on the finest private schools.

Ann was educated at Washington University in St. Louis, where she graduated summa cum laude with degrees in psychology and sociology. She currently serves as a trustee on the Board of Washington University in St. Louis. She also serves on the Dean’s Council of The New York University Tisch School of the Arts and is a trustee of the Center for Educational Innovation. She consults with many school districts and parent groups across the country about creating schools similar to TYWLS.

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