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News 12 Staff

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We are talking with members of the International Girls Academy in Newark, Maba, Samia, Nasha Madeline and Greenly are all here with me in studio right now. At the end of the first segment, we were talking about Canva and indeed explain what that's all about. Definitely. So Samia, our youth uh vice President had the opportunity to go with us to Austin Texas uh to work with indeed in cam the their foundation to collect and donate sanitary pads for women that were in need. So we were really excited about that. That happened last March in honor of Women's history Month. Why is this issue so important? Um This issue is so important because nowadays sanitary pads are like he like highly priced. So we felt as though we should collect sanitary pads, pack them up, send them to women's shelters. So they feel like someone hears and sees their needs especially during that time of month. So us packing the sanitary pads really made a big impact on the women's community. What other activities do you all get involved in that make you feel good to be a part of this school? Like to learn about new things and, and to make new, make new friends and to like to like to answer questions, like when your teacher asks them Madeline, I get the feeling you're not shy in class. Now, what do you like about your classes and the school and the subjects I like about my classroom is that my teacher is really funny and it can be really goofy sometimes but, but at the end of the time he's being goofy, we can bring it back, you can bring it back. What about you green? You wanna tell her about the podcast that you guys said, um the podcast that I did, it was really good because I got a chance to share my thoughts about focus in the after school program and my other friends got to share what they like about it too. And neha what about you? So I wasn't really doing the podcast, but I could tell you about focus and why I love focus. But it's all about like the project t what we did, what we, how you guys work together in the summer. So about the like project T and the lemonade. We were selling lemonade during the summer and we was selling lemonade because we can like earn it to the scholar, like take the money to the scholarships and stuff like that. Yeah. And coming up at noon MBA explains how IGA A was launched in the pandemic.

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This nonprofit started off in Newark, right? In the pandemic, we are talking about the International Girls Academy in Newark. Akiba Green is the board chair, explain how this works and how you got it off the ground. Definitely. So uh IG A was launched like literally uh right in the pandemic. So a lot of people you know, said that we were crazy, but I had a release, strong support as board members who supported me, who really, really said, like, listen as board chair, we're gonna take your leadership and do it right. We have board members in Ireland. We have folks in the Middle East that support the work that we're doing. Um And we meet with our girls. Uh Initially, we started virtually and then we have the opportunity to partner with different schools and the capacity of an after school program or within a Saturday Academy um type of situation. So that's how we meet with our students. It's usually like from a 3 to 6, we have guest speakers, the girls are able to do their, you know, do their thing. So tell me all about the experiences and what you all do when you get together for this academy. So when we get together, we like, we like, um, so we like, um make commercials about, about like products and then, and then we like, start to like, like, um we're gonna start making books and like, um podcasts. Do you like doing podcasts? You're not shy in front of the camera either. Are you? No, let's talk about pictures that you all sent me. I wanna know exactly what's going on here. Go ahead and show me. Definitely. So for our um our pictures that we had, that's like our group photo that we actually had for our students at the end of our Business Academy, right? So the girls had the opportunity to pitch, they work really, really, really hard to create their businesses from start to finish. And at the end as a reward, we give them a certificate, they receive a stipend sometimes like different prizes. We have another uh a picture with our students going abroad to Guyana. Uh So we were able to take them to South America to Spirit Airlines was one of our sponsors. They believed in the work that we were doing right though. IG A is a small, but it's a small but mighty organization, right? And again, we're trying to give students experiences to take them abroad, to loosen them up. We had the opportunity to take them to Maryland, right? To get that DMV experience. And again, it's all about the exposure. The DC Maryland, Virginia. Yes. Mhm. Any reason you won't pick that one? Uh Yeah. So the reason why we uh went to Maryland uh was just to uh show the students like uh about like the whole DMV area uh to expose them to get them out of Newark, right? Because we're, we're international and tomorrow at 6 a.m. Akiba explains why it's so important to take the holistic approach in helping with the young ladies along with the academic.

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The board chair and young ladies with the International Girls Academy in Newark are my guest here in studio right now on spotlight New Jersey. It sounds like you all have a fun time and engage in lots of activities. Yes, definitely. Um We believe that it's, it's important to take the holistic approach, right? When working with the next generation, not just making it so like heavy like and um enrichment or heavy academic, but the balance of both worlds, right? And one of the things that we pride ourselves with is having the students pour in to each other, right? And I would love greenly to talk about like what words of advice, you know, would you give to all the beautiful ladies watching? The words of advice that I would give to all the beautiful ladies watching is to never give up on yourself, love, the love yourself just the way you are and remember you're always beautiful. I love that. And what about the rest of you? I would say to the beautiful girls out there, I'll say that to never give up on your dreams. And just because someone's letting you down, never give up and let yourself up for success. Exactly. That's beautiful. Madeleine. What about you, Nesha? But I would say to the girls that's outside watching me is yeah, to never like give up on your dream, chase your dream because I have a dream, my own self and I've been chasing it ever since I was seven. And what is that dream? I wanna know my dream is to do cosmetology. I always love to do hair, nails, eyelashes, everything except for Barbara. Like I don't wanna cut hair though, but that's it. You just wanna let it grow out and be beautiful. And what about you? I would say to get involved because as someone who's graduating high school, you really realize that you can't just sit here your entire high school career and not do anything and like also to speak up because before I joined the IGA, I was very like quiet but at the same time, I wanted to be an attorney but I knew you can't, you can't be a quiet attorney. That's not how it works. But now with IG A is like I can speak, I speak up like I asked questions. I don't just sit back and watch everything happen. I get involved. So I would say like get involved in your community. There's always something you can do out there and Madeline. I know you have your cards. What did you wanna say from your cards? Hm. I wanted to say that when I grow up, I wanna be a math teacher to help, inspire, to help, inspire all ST students to believe in their math skills. I love what all of them had to say. Coming up at nine maba and the young ladies talk about their venture called Project T.

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We are talking with members of the International Girls Academy in Newark and they're working on a project that's very close to my heart. It's called tea. I love that. I love tea. So tell me more about this. Definitely. So, so project T is something that we're really, really excited about, right? The girls are gonna have the opportunity to sell uh tea leaves, right? Uh So in the summer, if you wanna explain what we, what we did with Project tea for the summer, that'd be really great to meet you. OK? So over the summer we made lemonade, like we would have have two full coolers of lemonade and we would sit outside and like market our lemonade to people. It was only $5 and like we made a lot of sales. But the key is if you wanna make sales, you have to like, you can't just sit there all shyly. You have to like put yourself out there because pe because people feed off the energy. Like we noticed when we were more outgoing, people were more like welcoming to buy the tea and like we got real good, like compliments on tea. So it's not like it's nasty. No, definitely, but you use your personalities to sell your product. Um And we're so excited because for the winter, we're gonna be featuring uh Hibiscus tea kml tea, green tea uh for all you tea lovers to support. Um but we're doing this with the call, right? Uh We are raising funds to take students abroad again uh to Guyana. So ladies, uh this is the time to to shine light about why you're excited to travel with us. Why do you love to travel? Go ahead. I'm I love to travel because I wanna see like the new places and like the new things they have in different places and like the different, the like the things that like that have the like the same attentions and the things that don't have the same attentions and you see there's a whole bigger world out there than where you live. Yeah. Yeah. And different people. And what other projects you have a pink soiree. Yes. Uh So we have our 21 shades of pink sore coming up uh which is gonna be March 14th and that was our second year. So we actually had NASA and Samia were uh our speakers for the first one. Really, really exciting ladies. If you wanna talk about your experience, your thoughts about the event. Oh, it's good. Um It was a nice event. It was very different because I'm not used to like speaking and like introducing people. So, like, it opened my eyes to like public speaking and it's like something I'm interested in and I'll like, probably do when I get older. The, for me, I was kind of shy, like the first, the first time I got there, even though nobody was there, I was prepping myself and prepping myself. And then when I actually started speaking, I did have a little function of like stuttering. But then that's when they were cheering me on telling me I got it and stuff. It made me comfortable and stuff like that. But it was really, really nice. Love the color pink. It's my favorite color. The creative director at IG A joins us here on Spotlight New Jersey at noon.

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Take a look at this beautiful canvas that was painted of me for me by the one and only Al Juan Pipkin who was the creative director with the International Girls Academy in Newark. He is joining us right now because cute little Madeleine decided she wanted to move over and sit right here on Sama's lap. OK. So tell me about this portrait. Well, absolutely. So um this portrait um took me, I was up to about 2 a.m. but it was very important to me to make certain that I was able to get this completed for you because we gracefully uh appreciate uh you uh providing this opportunity in the channel 12 News network. So it was um you know, in regard to this, you know, I'm an artist and many facets. Uh I played a CRE uh creative director role with the International Girls Academy. So I do a lot of behind the scenes stuff and um like editing uh as well as video content, cartoons, drawing art. You know, I'm a, a student of the great beast of butler from Newark, New Jersey, which is also uh an amazing artist who does quilt work and So, um you know, I learned uh how to be able to uh paint, but I didn't know that that was always my gift. You know, I was more into piano music and just being with the International Girls Academy uh is ve very cool because this is an education for me, art, uh music, all of this, I see that the next lane for this is just tapping into creativity and being able to uh like be educational through this platform and as well, um I, I just did my best work to be able to try and present it to you because we are really grateful for you giving us the best opportunity to show what we're trying to do. Oh, this is my pleasure and it's beautiful what you did and I appreciate the gift. And MBA, you all like to nurture the arts and creativity in your girls 100% because that's actually one of our principal, a part of the seven principles of Kwanzaa, which is Columba, right? Which means creativity. So we have a lot of art projects coming up and specifically, we're releasing our daughters of the community volume two and three uh for everyone, right? So the students will have the opportunity to write about their stories, right? And hear their voices and what they feel, right? Because um it was always said like as the next generation, you have to march to the beat of your own drum, right? So for everyone who's watching. We, we wish and we hope that every young lady marches to the beat of their own drum. And why is it so important to put this in writing 100% heritage? Because, you know, number one as brown and black people, we come from greatness, right? And we have to be the ones to tell the story because who else is gonna tell the story if it's not from us by us, right? And we believe in Kuchi Chaco, which is another principle of Kwanzaa self determination. So that's what we empower and we pour into our students to do so. Ladies, thank you very much for coming on spotlight. I appreciate it. You too AJ thank you so much. Thank you so much Della for the opportunity. We appreciate you. You're welcome.

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Makeba Green, board chair of the International Girls Academy, and some group members joined Della Crews to discuss how the nonprofit is guiding the next generation of girls by promoting learning, communication and service to the community.

Spotlight New Jersey: International Girls Academy in Newark

Makeba Green, board chair of the International Girls Academy, and some group members joined Della Crews to discuss how the nonprofit is guiding the next generation of girls by promoting learning, communication and service to the community.

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