For Young Adolescent Girls
For Young Adolescent Girls
“"Do not ask me to abandon or forsake you!
for wherever you go I will go, wherever
you lodge I will lodge, your people shall
be my people, and your God my God.”
(NAB)
Encouraging a love of reading and writing
Developing a supportive community
Empowering girls to reach their full potential
Developing a spirit of service to others
Founded by
For young girls, 12-16, living
in the Defiance area
Defiance College
Division of Teacher Education
And the use of the Yellow
House for our meeting space
Peggy Brown Jerri Courtney
And generous donors
Baking cookies for Empty Bowls dinner
Photo by Brooke Gordon
Created and written by participants of
T-RUTH Academy for Young Adolescent
Girls ©2010
for ourselves and for each other, for
improvement now, not later. We LIVE as
deeply as we can by accepting challenges
and opportunities with a smile. We LIVE as
strong individuals united as an equally strong
group and we realize the importance of the
simple statement: We LIVE!
as one to DREAM and in our dream we see a
piece of everyone in it. We DREAM of a
better world with better lives. DREAMING is
our way of getting started. When we DREAM,
we make things happen courageously.
to speak up and say what we think, but we also
need wisdom to be careful not to offend
others. We also need COURAGE to accept
responsibility for our lives and behavior, to
accept our failures, to strive to overcome
them, and to work hard to accomplish new
things. Through COURAGE we find hope.
and fun. HOPE is something everyone should
have. If we don’t have HOPE, we should seek
it. For when we have HOPE, we can
encourage others to have it, too. HOPE
brings joy!
the T-RUTH Academy girls, commit to always
be there to bring JOY to each other’s lives.
We strive to bring JOY through
smiles, hugs, and love. Everyone needs
happiness, and therefore, JOY in their lives.
JOY allows us to imagine.
growing with and through each other by
establishing a community of sisters based on
trust and respect. We pledge to remain loyal
to each other by communicating and sharing
ideas and feelings. When we IMAGINE, we
create.
beauty with our dance, our song, our
writing, and our art. We strive to CREATE
within ourselves a peaceful and welcoming
spirit.
begins within us first. We seek PEACE within
so that others may be inspired to live
PEACEFULLY. Our goal is to tear down the
walls that separate us by living the words
from which T-RUTH originated: “I will not
forsake you; wherever you go, I will, go…
(Ruth 1:16).” Together we have the power to
create a new world free of hate and fear,
filled with light and love.
Composed and performed by Yiruma, from
the album From the Yellow Room (2003)