Female scholars at the Waterside School for Leadership in Rockaway Park celebrated their first ever “Girl’s Night In” on May 13. The evening, hosted by The Child Center of NY’s SONYC afterschool program, was a chance for the girls to build a sense of community as they felt like royalty, posing for pictures with the actual Ms. New York 2016, Anna Treppiedi, and taking turns trying on her crown.
Treppiedi, program coordinator of SONYC Waterside, spoke to the girls about self-esteem and respect. She also emphasized her expectation that they do their best in school: “It doesn’t matter what you want to do. You will need to go to school. You want to teach? You want to be an actress? You want to wrestle, like me? You need school!”
The pageant winner also shared her own experience of being bullied when she was younger and how she overcame it. She reminded them that a positive attitude and hard work are the keys to success.
Female scholar Diamond, an eighth-grader at the Waterside School, summed it up when she declared, “Beauty is in the mind, the heart, and the soul. If you have a good personality, people will want to be around you.”
Elisa understands what they are going through. She is from the neighborhood. She attended PS 89 herself. When she was 17 and graduated high school, she started volunteering here in hopes that it would lead to an entry level job as a youth worker. The bet paid off, and within three months she was hired. Since then she put in years of hard work, and went up the ladder with promotions. In 2012 she earned her bachelor’s and is now a NYS certified teacher.
“We’ll build a better world—for all the little boys and girls,” sang Emme Aviles and her friends, elementary school students in The Child Center’s summer program at PS 273.
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