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It’s never too early to learn about all of the support services and learning opportunities that are available at the Women’s Center.

As part of a “Take Your Daughter to Work Day” celebration, 17 emerging leaders from the Village School gathered at the Center for Global Health to listen to Director of Engaged Scholarship, Jaronda Miller-Bryant, discuss all of the opportunities and services the Women’s Center offers.

The Village School is a local, all-girl middle school in the heart of downtown Charlottesville. The goal of the Village School is to, “provide each student with the tools for transforming information into personal understanding and communicating it effectively.” The Village School emphasizes women finding their own voices as learners, a theme that resonates greatly with the vision of the Women’s Center.

Jaronda took the students through the basics of the Women’s Center, beginning the conversation with a simple question: What do you think a Women’s Center does?

One student answered that it must do something related to important women in history. Another student pointed to women's health services.

One student even commented on issues facing women globally.

Applauding their answers, Jaronda explained everything the Women's Center offers students, staff, and community members, noting the services relevant to their initial guesses about what it is we do. Jaronda discussed stress and seeking extra support through counseling services, relating it to the times where they may have sat down with their own school counselor. They tackled issues such as body image and girls' access to education globally, listening intently as Jaronda went through each of our programs.

The students raised astute questions about not only the logistics of the Center, like who our interns are, but the type of outreach we do for issues such as gender-based violence. They were an impressive bunch, to say the least.

Jaronda noted, “The Village School girls were such a delight to speak with on Thursday! Such bright young women who asked some of the best questions. I enjoyed every minute of it!”

It was a pleasure to get to meet these budding leaders. As they were wrapping up for the day, their chaperone noted, "I think you have a few future interns in this room!"