This March through June, She's the First is giving you a fun opportunity to send more girls to school. It's as simple as asking friends and family to support you in a race, or organizing your own fitness fundraiser, from yoga to spinning classes. Sign up your event on our Causevox page and help us sponsor 100 girls in 100 days!
Do you want to make a difference on your home campus? Join the 30+ campus chapters across the country and inspire your middle school, high school, or university to empower and educate girls in the developing world!
“As writers, we’re celebrating National Poetry Month by crafting a poem or two, but we’re also excited to check out If the World Were My Classroom…, a new poetry anthology published by She’s the First, a nonprofit that raises money for girls’ education in developing countries.
She’s the First asked “If the world were my classroom, I’d teach a girl…”, and more than 8,000 first-time writers and seasoned professionals from around the world submitted their inspirational responses. The poems selected aim to “express the evolving wisdom, brave vulnerability, and bold ambition that we universally share with girls worldwide, despite the vastly different circumstances into which we are born.”
Pick up a copy at She’s the First or swing by our Twitter giveaway on Wednesday at 12 PT for a chance to win your own copy. Tweet a response to the prompt “If the world were my classroom, I’d teach a girl…” and the best verses will be compiled into a poem and three winners will be randomly selected to win an autographed copy of the anthology!
We hope you’re able to express yourself this month and maybe even help other women do the same!”
Yesterday was the big She’s the First Voice Your Verse Event!!! It was an exciting and inspiring night. Watch it live here!
(via everything-inspiring)
Students were asked to write a poem answering the question:
If the World Was Your Classroom, What Would you teach a girl?
——
Students were asked to write a poem answering the question:
If the World Was Your Classroom, What Would you teach a girl?
——
Keep Calm, Stay Strong
Keep up all that laughter.
Don’t let your childhood go.
Don’t go searching for a happily ever after,
For when it comes, you will know.
Stay true to who you are.
If you get lost, you will always find your way.
You are and always will be among the stars.
Each and every one of you will have her day.
Don’t let the threads of your life fray.
Keep your ambitions strong.
From life’s path, do not stray.
Your dreams and aspirations can’t go wrong.
Everybody makes their own mistakes,
To that there is no question.
In life’s game there are no fakes,
Living life on the edge is just a suggestion.
One love gone is not love lost.
It is far from the end of love.
Your heart should always be the cost,
For the one who fits you like a glove.
Keep your true friends near,
Because they are one in a million.
But, keep your best friend here,
Because she is one in a billion.
Your family is the people who love you most.
So don’t take them for granted.
Of your achievements they are not afraid to boast,
When the seeds of your life have been planted.
In the end you are your own hero.
Keep calm and stay strong.
You will never be a zero.
There will always be a place where you belong.
-Jonna Gath
Students were asked to write a poem answering the question:
If the World Was Your Classroom, What Would you teach a girl?
——
More than She Will Ever Know
If the world was my classroom
I would teach a girl to never give up because she is capable of more than she will ever know
If the world was my classroom
I would teach a girl that she is worthy of respect and love because she is more important than she will ever know
If the world was my classroom
I would teach a girl to never settle for second best because she deserves more than she will ever know
If the world was my classroom
I would teach a girl to believe in herself because she IS more than she will ever know
-Jamie Moran
Students were asked to write a poem answering the question:
If the World Was Your Classroom, What Would you teach a girl?
——
Glow
Hey there, pretty girl
There’s so much you can learn
About the way a flower blooms
or the branches of a fern
Tell me, pretty child
What makes your eyes so wide
With the wonder of the world
And knowledge’s rolling tide
I could tell you, pretty princess
Of how the president plays
But I think yould much rather know
What laughs in the sun’s rays
Silly little fairy
Who twirls and spins all day
You seem to float above the ground
And bring light in every way
So, pretty little dancer
Who skips down life’s new path
The world will put up boulders
And seem so full of wrath
But if you keep that pretty smile
And giggle at the dark
Life will never hurt you
You’ll be safe in every park
Pretty little hand
Holding so tight to mine
There’s things out there that scare you
Don’t let them shadow your shine
My pretty little girl
You’ll grow and grow and grow
If the world was my schoolhouse
I’d teach you how to glow
-Natalie Harris
Students were asked to write a poem answering the question:
If the World Was Your Classroom, What Would you teach a girl?
——
Tips on how to quilt your blanket
Life is good material to work with.
Cut it into squares of dreams
Then sew them together with rhinestones.
Make your blanket sparkle.
Darn the blanket’s holes with ice cream.
Mend its unraveling seams with chocolate.
Remove the salty stain of tears
With laughter and butterfly kisses.
When the blanket
Gets dragged through the mud,
When its color starts to fade,
When its tassels have lost all their threads,
Remember,
No jagged, regretful, rips
Should have been left unmended,
No miscellaneous threads
Should have been sitting untied,
No stubborn wrinkles
Should have left their permanent dents.
Because quilting a blanket
That lasts through it all
Is one quarter hard work
and three quarters
believing that you can.
-Isobel Romberger
Students were asked to write a poem answering the question:
If the World Was Your Classroom, What Would you teach a girl?
——
Las Sencillas
Las chicas sencillas
también buscan el amor
que les alegren la vida
y que les coloreen el corazón.
A veces hay dias malos
que no tenemos emoción
solo queremos estar tranquilas
o sentadas en un rincón.
A las chicas sencillas como yo
nos gusta vestirnos normal
con un poco de ropa decente
y un poco de ropa formal.
En el colegio somos discretas
escribimos en silencio
y no hacemos morisquetas.
Somos alegres y divertidas
pero no nos gusta que nos tomen
como unas niñas engreidas.
En conclusión somos niñas normales.
Pero lo bueno es que no nos gusta
hacernos notar.
por eso cada día
lo vivimos nada más.
Simple
Simple girls
also look for love
to bring happiness to life
and color to the heart.
Sometimes there are bad days
when we have no emotion
only want to be still
seated in a corner.
Simple girls like me
like to dress normal
some decent clothes
and some formal.
In school we are discrete
we write in silence
we make no faces.
We are happy and fun,
But not to be mistaken
for spoiled.
In the end, we are
simply girls.
We don’t seek attention.
We live one day at a time.
-Nicole Loreto Rosales Bernal
Take a look at this fascniating book from poet Kevin Young and be inspired to write—and eat!—during poetry month this April!
“In the introduction, I talk a lot about how food and poems are related,” Mr. Young said. “They are both, to me, necessities.”
Read more: Poems that Make You Hungry
