Lunch for the Girls 2017: Taylor’s remarks
My name is Taylor Byrd. I’m 16-years-old and I’ve been attending Girls Inc. for 9 years. Girls Inc. is a home away from home for me and many girls. At Girls Inc. I’ve been a peer teacher for B.E.L (Board of Educated Ladies) where we teach other youth in our community about sex education. I’m in success prep, a job prep skill building program where I practice skills from the program at a summer job and earn a paycheck working at Girls Inc. I’m a Sparks Positivity near-peer leader where I help teach the younger girls learn about compassion and kindness. And this will be my 5th year in the Eureka! STEM program. This past summer I finished my second externship at Avirture, a software company in Sarpy county. During the 4-week externship I worked on bugs and errors and used visual studio code to fix the bugs. I love coding and computer programming. I got to sit in meetings to discuss the day’s progress. I got a glimpse of what I want to study when I go to college.
This year I also stepped out of my comfort zone and joined the fitness club with Mr. Joe. We all know that sports and fitness is important for our health but not all of us like to do it or enjoy doing it. For me, this was important because on my grandmother’s side of the family they have a history of diabetes and I’ve seen what that looks like. I know that staying healthy is the only way I will avoid diabetes. In our fitness club we learn that nutrition and exercise go together. Mr. Joe makes sure to add healthy cooking using items we had in our garden at Girls Inc. and items we would have at home. He showed us how to make vegetarian spaghetti and limit frying our foods. I know it’s hard to eat healthy but being at Girls Inc. I’m reminded each day why it’s important. I’m grateful that we have Girls Inc. in our community to keep us healthy and smart.
