My name is Elayna and I am twelve years old. I go to McMillan Junior High. I used to go to Girls Inc. at the South Center from kindergarten to 3rd grade. In the 5th grade, I started coming to the North Center.

It’s a nice community here at Girls Inc. The teachers are nice. I have really good communication with Ms. Amber, Ms. Gabby, and Ms. Erin. I like to bother Ms. Amber. When I hear other girls talking about Girls Inc., I hear them say, “I like this place. It’s fun.”

There’s a place here to get help with your homework if you need it. There’s a place you can go if you need a break. Really, there is a place for everything here. The Creative Room, that’s the place to make art. I made this string art. You dip string in paint and then you put it in folded paper – paper folded like a card – and you pull the string. The paint leaves cool marks and makes some kind of art. String art.

Some of my favorite things at Girls Inc. are when we get to play outside or walk the track in the gym. When people come from The Rose Theater to do theater games with us and let us act out scenes. Or cooking teachers come to teach us cooking. Those are both things I like. We used tomatoes and peppers we grew in our garden to make tacos and spaghetti. We also made peach cobbler.

I feel proud of myself when our sport teams win. I play soccer and basketball. The soccer season is over now. We played at the Y. Now we are playing basketball.

I like the chickens at Girls Inc. I like to help take care of them and the coop. I am not afraid of them. Other people are. But not me.