Ms. Adventure Girls : a Critical Feminist Pedagogical Empowerment Program for Pre-Adolescent Girls and Mentors

Abstract

The Ms. Adventure Girls program is a pre-adolescent youth development after-school organization. The Ms. Adventure Girls program focuses on four themes: teaming, wellness, self-esteem, and leadership, in hopes to reduce the issues associated with youth being under-resourced at DeLong Middle School. DeLong Middle School has a high rate of free and reduced lunch and is demographically the most diverse middle school population in the Eau Claire Area School District with 25% students of color, and 48% of the students are on free and reduced lunch (Evers, 2012). The study focused on two areas: the participant component and the mentoring component. The goal of the pre-adolescent participant component was to show a transfer of training in the areas of wellness, self-esteem, leadership, and teaming. The goal of the mentor component of this participatory research was to equalize and elevate the mentors to become effective and experienced in the feminist pedagogical tenants of collaboration, interaction, egalitarianism, and empowerment (Campbell, 2003; Fonow & Cook, 1991).