Message from our Founder
Dear Friends:
For years, I have conceptualized a middle school where girls from low-income families are challenged to reach for the stars. I have imagined a school where learning is fun and challenging. I have envisioned girls' metamorphoses to young women who appreciate their ability to impact their families, communities, and world. I have dreamed of Charlotte Community School for Girls.
We will open our doors to 18 fifth graders in the fall of 2010. We will provide a tuition-free private college preparatory curriculum for low-wealth middle school girls. Like educator Dennis Littky, we believe in relationships, relevance, and rigor. We want to make academics relevant to scholars by exposing them to people and places that are interesting. We want to challenge girls to think, question, and create in meaningful ways. And, w
e want to nurture right brain skills like those emphasized by author Daniel Pink in his book A Whole New Mind.
At CCSG, we aim to provide all scholars with a laptop for use in the classroom by the end of the 5th grade. They will make movies and record podcasts and they will graduate as sophisticated digital thinkers who use technology in interesting and exciting ways. They will discover science while kayaking. They will develop confidence by serving their community. They will create public art and read poetry in coffee houses. Our scholars will be thinkers, writers, poets, inventors, designers, mathematicians, linguists, scientists, historians, philosophers, actors, musicians, artists, caregivers, athletes and leaders. We will support them through high school and college and encourage them to return to their communities to lead.
Cathy Sheafor
Founder and Vision Keeper