Museum educator, Lauren Tepper recently earned the highest honor a Girl Scout can receive—the Gold Award—for her program, Project Empowerment. Working with the Museum’s Director of Community Outreach, Leah Oppenheimer, Lauren spent over 80 hours creating and facilitating the weekly reading group designed to promote self-esteem and and literacy skills in middle school children. The project proved so successful last year, she was invited to return and continue this invaluable program for kids in the East End. We recently spoke with her about the project, why childhood literacy is so important to her, and her experience teaching for the first time.
Can you tell us a little bit about Project Empowerment?
Project Empowerment is a reading group that meets at the Museum once a week. I saw a group that wasn’t getting the attention they needed and I wanted to create something where they felt they were the most important thing. I’ve always found it important to give back and help other people. My parents taught that we have to keep giving to others. It doesn’t make a difference what your situation is, you should always help other people.
Why did you decide to make your project about literacy?
When it came time to think about what I wanted to do, reading was the first thing that popped up. When I was younger, I had a lot of difficulties growing up with reading and writing. Teachers used to tell me that I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want other young kids to go through that. I wanted to make it more entertaining and understandable.
What has the experience been like?
Awesome! Last summer was my first time teaching and the response was incredible. The kids are all so intelligent. Last year, we went over the book Wonder…it’s all about how to handle being different. We used it to discuss bullying and anti-bullying.
Attendance this year has more than doubled…we have about 20 kids. This summer we’re focusing on mythology. It’s a different ball game, but just as fun. Each week, we bring a new god or goddess to the table and discuss it. Hopefully, they’ll always come away with some really cool knowledge.