Girls Academic Leadership Academy (GALA)

The LA2050 grant will help prepare girls from a public STEAM school to become leaders in the entertainment fields of broadcast technology, multimedia, animation, sound engineering, and lighting. The grant will fund the startup equipment for production of music, art and broadcasting. Most importantly, this grant will enable our art program to make the latest digital technology available to a diverse community that has been grossly underserved. Please help us level the playing field for the creative geniuses of tomorrow.

Since opening in 2016, GALA has expanded from an enrollment of 165 to 588 students; with this growth, we struggle with accessibility of resources to all students –basic supplies so each student has sufficient hands-on time (e.g., microscopes). Many of our students are low-income; therefore, we need to provide equipment (e.g., Chromebooks, calculators) to level the playing field amongst all our students. In addition, we need to invest in more advanced equipment to broaden students’ understanding of real-life engineering and science applications.

GALA paves the road for high school girls to engage in project based learning and real world problem solving while supporting them as they become the leaders and innovators in STEM fields of tomorrow.

Recognizing the research that shows that an all-girls school has a significant impact on the academic achievement of young women, GALA will provide a rigorous college preparatory education with a STEM based curriculum. Our proposal is for a collaborative work Maker Space, which will provide a more flexible learning environment where the girls can apply their collaborative, academic and technology skills to building projects.