• Once again, no funds needed! All done in-house using the resources and staff that were present, willing, and eager to assist.

• “Best practices”:

• • Allow for student body engagement/suggestions/inclusions/motivation as much as possible!

• • Helps students to feel included, supported, motivated, and heard.

• • Helps promote female empowerment and Teacher-Student or Faculty-Student interaction and relationships.

• People involved:

• • Wendy Maravi and Jessica Sofranko (School Guidance Counselors and WSCC Team members)
  • Tania Labrador, Jennifer Craven, Steven Zografos, and myself (Rashidah Gilliam)  (Phsy. Ed  & HLTH teachers, School Social worker, Social Studies/Black History Teachers and or Coaches/Club advisors
  • Female sports members of student body

We are excited to announce the creation of our 1st Women in Sports Forum. The forum was created to spotlight our female student athletes and gain a stronger connection between the student body and staff here at AHPA. In the previous/current years our school has scored under 50% or 0-19th percentile Nationally on Teacher-Student Relationships and Student Sense of Belonging. With the data used, AHPA has decided to target various groups as a whole/individually to develop a sense of belonging and build student-staff relations. With that being said, we decided to conduct our very 1st Annual Women in Sports Forum on February 1st 2023 (National Girls and Women in Sports Day) for our female-athlete student body. Our #NGWSD2023 was a day to recognize the achievements of, and to encourage all girls and women of AHPA to participate in sports and fitness activities as well as celebrate the achievements of our girls and women in sports, while also acknowledging that we’re not done yet, and we must continue to advocate for gender equity in sports.

AHPA honored all females currently/previously involved in sports. Our Women in Sports Forum included keynote speakers from our AHPA staff such as Jesscia Sofranko (WSCC Team member/Guidance-D3 college player), Jennifer Craven (Staff/Teacher of Social Studies-D1 college player), and Tania Labrador (WSCC Team member/Phys. Ed/HLTH teacher-D2 college player). Their personalized experiences on life in sports after high school offered students a sense of belonging/teacher student relationships and or a better understanding of staff/teachers and how they interact with each other on a daily basis. AHPA is always pushing for a sense of belonging and an increase in teacher-student relationships. Our WSCC team member group will continuously work to promote inclusion, and SEL amongst the student body and community. We plan to recruit more participants, offer guidance, build on female empowerment/participation in sports in our 2nd

event.

Name of school and town/school district: Alexander Hamilton Preparatory Academy/Elizabeth Public Schools

Name and credentials of contact person: Rashidah Gilliam 310 Cherry Street Elizabeth, NJ 07208 Gilliamra@epsnj.org