Boys and Girls Club Essay

All across America, young men join together in a special organization called the Boy Scouts of America. Scouts from 1st grade to seniors in high school work toward a common goal: growing up into a functional, mature citizen and leader of the United States. I joined this great organization in 2006 as a Wolf Cub Scout and rose through the ranks to get into Boy Scouts in 2010. I didn’t know what to expect from such a widely popular, military-like group. Will I get pushed to my limit? How much can Scouts impact me? Is Cub Scouts like what others say?

As individuals, we are all given assigned aspects that define us. Race, gender, and social class are just a few of the characteristics that make us who we are. We also choose to take on certain aspects that reflect our own interests such as careers, fashion, and fandom. When our chosen and assigned aspects come together, our own identity is formed. These parts eventually impact and affect each other with the idea of intersection. The interconnection of being a woman and belonging to a certain career cross and act on each other in ways that are mostly negative. Many women find being successful in their careers very difficult especially women who are based into a male dominated industry.

They have Girl Scout troops and branches all over the United States. There are also similar programs all over the world, for example, there are Girl Guides in Europe. I think that Girl Scouts has a big impact on the world. According to GSHH, “Girl Scouts are more likely than non-Girl Scouts to embrace new experiences and overcome failure, to self-identify as leaders and take on leadership roles, to practice resiliency and persist through challenges, and have stronger female networks of all ages, just to name a few.” Girl Scouts creates strong girl leaders, which is what we need. We need to teach young girls that they are just important as any other person or gender. Girl Scouts also teaches girls to clean up after themselves and make the world a better place, and this will have a big impact on years to come as these young leaders grow up and help the world improve. According to the WAGGGS official website, “The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts reaches 10 million girls and young women in 146 countries across our five regions.”. With 10 million girls who are taught leadership skills, Girl Scouts will not only has a big impact on large communities such as the United States, but will have effects on the world by empowering young

Since the beginning of time, gender roles have existed in society.  Women were assigned the tasks of child-care and food preparation.  Men performed most activities that required physical strength.  As society progressed, the role of women did not.  Although less emphasis is placed on gender roles today, gender roles still exist. In 1968, Alice Munro wrote, "Boys and Girls" to address the confusion that gender roles may cause in a modern society.

A solution to help at risk girls feel they fit into their community has been attempted through the formation of a club in Texas, where there is a large Mexican population due to the border region. A club for at-risk girls was started called Girls Acquiring Leadership Skills through Service (GALLS). Since "students who lack feelings of inclusion at school are those most at-risk for both youth gang involvement and dropping out of school" this club focuses on making girls feel they belong at school(Sonnenblick 243). Throughout the border region, enacting programs such as GALLS could be effective for lessening Hispanic girls' at-risk classification. Not being at-risk would be a benefit for Hispanic girls whom face so many other potentially problematic situations in their daily life on the border.

Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) is a countrywide organization of local subdivisions that provide after-school programs for young people. The purpose of BGCA is to provide young people with a safe environment during weekends and after school. As a non-profit organization, Boys and Girls Clubs of America run after-school clubs that serves over 4 million children across 3,400 facilities throughout 50 states and Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The organization also has 150 clubs located on the Native American tribal lands as well as another 400 clubs located in military bases that are spread across the globe. Since its inception, the organization and its predecessors have been tackling juvenile delinquency for more than 100 years. In order to accomplish this objective, BGCA opens the clubs on a daily basis after school and during weekends. These clubs are managed by full-time youth development professionals who are supported by volunteers in the community. Despite of its activities revolving around sports and recreational activities, BGCA provide programs that focus on health and life skills, character and leadership development, computer skills, and arts.

“Microsoft aspires to be a great company, and our success depends on you. It depends on people who innovate and are committed to growing our business responsibly. People who dedicate themselves to really satisfying customers, helping partners, and improving the communities in which we do business. People who are accountable for achieving big, bold goals with unwavering integrity. People who are leaders, who appreciate that to be truly great, we must continually strive to do better ourselves and help others improve.”

The facility of the Boys and Girls Club was neat and clean and gave off a professional impression. When you step inside the facility, it

Three women witnessed what happens when young boys are exposed to negative influences in the streets and decided to give them a positive opportunity. This cause started in Conneticuit and spread to Boston in 1906. The “Boys Club of America” received a Congressional Charter in 1956, which was later amended and renewed in 1990 to include young girls (Boys and Girls Club...).

Specifically, researchers were looking at any new skill development for the children, as well as the nurturing of positive behaviors and the development of a relationship with a mentor or staff member (Carruthers and Busser, 2000). The study took place in a major southwest city and it involved 25 interviews with staff members, 17 interviews with the parents of these children, and 61 interviews with the club members themselves (Carruthers and Busser, 2000). Interviews were conducted over five different sites, four of which took place in low socioeconomic areas (Carruthers and Busser, 2000). Two data collection methods were primarily used in order to come to conclusions. The first was researchers who were observing behaviors at any of the given five sites (Carruthers and Busser, 2000). The second was how researchers conducted in-depth interviews (Carruthers and Busser, 2000). The interviews and observations were conducted over a thirty week period and each interview consisted of approximately 12 to 14 interview questions (Carruthers and Busser, 2000). Data was analyzed using the cross-categorical method (Carruthers and Busser,

While living in the Residence, we will be working with the Boys and Girls Club of the Cedar Valley in Waterloo. They offer a safe and educational environment to kids, specifically those at-risk, to spend time with their friends and participate in activities put on by staff and volunteers. This gives these kids opportunities that they might not have had access to elsewhere, and it prevents them from finding more dangerous activities in some of their communities. In a bigger city like Waterloo, there is a higher population of at-risk children and teenagers who choose to go to an after-school program like the Boys and Girls Club instead of doing more dangerous activities. Statistically, there are more lower-income families with children who are a part of after-school programs like this because parents are not always available to provide after-school care, which makes them more likely to fall into trouble. We became aware of the need for volunteers in places like the Boys and Girls Club through our own experiences working with teenagers who have gotten into trouble because they did not have this resource.

For my mini ethnography paper I wanted to choose the Boys and Girls Club of Alachua County as my social setting. The Boys and Girls Club is a place where children come to be children, especially when they do not have the opportunity to do so at home. Most of these children have to take some type of adult role when they get home from the program because of personal circumstances. The Boys and Girls club is located in the middle of a low income neighborhood, where parents are barely able to pay their weekly fees for their children.

“Boys and Girls” is a short story, by Alice Munro, which illustrates a tremendous growing period into womanhood, for a young girl living on a fox farm in Canada, post World War II. The young girl slowly comes to discover her ability to control her destiny and her influences on the world. The events that took place over the course of the story helped in many ways to shape her future. From these events one can map the Protagonist’s future. The events that were drawn within the story provided the Protagonist with a foundation to become an admirable woman.

   Recent history boldly notes the protests and political unrest surrounding the Vietnam Conflict during the 1960s and 70s. However, equally important in this era are the women who pushed for gender role reevaluation and publicly rebelled against the established social norm of a woman's "place." Although Alice Munro may not have been burning her bra on the courthouse steps, threads of a feminist influence can be found in "Boys and Girls." Munro's main character, a girl probably modeled after Munro's own childhood experiences on an Ontario farm, faces her awakening body and the challenge of developing her social identity in a man's world. "The girl," an unnamed character, acts as

There have been many theories and studies in support of the development of gender identity and gender roles. One major theory was the one put forward by Bandura and his social learning theory.