Wilson Elementary Teacher Champions Super Girl Program

by Jim Dittmann
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By: Beaver Dam Unified School District – Beaver Dam, WI

Ms. Monica Keel’s quest for inspiring girls to be their best self began more than thirteen years ago. While she was in college, Ms. Keel volunteered at a weekend summit called Sister-to-Sister. She participated in the summit for two years while at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater campus. The vitalizing program was designed to help middle-school-aged girls learn strategies for building healthy relationships.

When Ms. Keel left UW-Whitewater and began her teaching career, the experience she had at the Sister-to-Sister summits left her with the deep-seeded knowledge of the power of inspiring girls to live their lives as authentic, remarkable young women. While teaching, Ms. Keel kept on the lookout for a program similar to the Sister-to-Sister Summit that she could incorporate into a possible summer-school course for girls.

Thirteen years later, Ms. Keel, who is currently teaching kindergarten at Wilson Elementary School, saw the founder for a non-profit organization called Super Girls on the news. The founder, who is a Wisconsin native, explained that the Super Girl program is structured around six-core principles. Each principle is further developed into ten lesson plans and provides a focused program that involves skits, role playing, discussions about real-life experiences, conversations around cyber-bullying, true understandings around bullying, positive relationships, and leadership.

Ms. Keel contacted the organization and attended one of their training sessions in May of 2014, which made her a Super-Girl Facilitator. In 2015, Ms. Keel held her first Super-Girl sessions in three different elementary schools in Beaver Dam as an after-school class. She has also held Super-Girl sessions over the summer at the Seippel Homestead.

Ms. Keel currently offers Super-Girl sessions to Beaver Dam 4th and 5th grade elementary students, as well as a Beaver Dam Middle School group offered to 6th-grade girls. The curriculum of the program is modified to span 2nd grade through 11th grade, and Ms. Keel would like to eventually offer enough sessions that all 5th-grade girls would be able to participate. Ms. Keel emphasizes that “Strong, healthy girls is a goal we all share — parents, educators, and community members.”

If you would like to learn more about the Super Girl Program, or would like to find out how you can help support and grow this program, please contact Ms. Keel at keelm@bdusd.org

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