The FYER Is Burning: A Look Inside the SGOF Leadership Center
- Save Girls on FYER
- 6 hours ago
- 9 min read
FYER News Summer 2026 Edition: A Seasonal Update from Save Girls on FYER
There is something that happens inside the SGOF Leadership Center that is hard to put into words, but we are going to try. Every day, we gather together as a community of girls, staff, mentors, and supporters who believe in one simple truth: Black and Brown girls do not need to be fixed. They are already brilliant. They are already leaders. They already carry fire within them. Our work exists to protect that fire and make sure the world never gets the chance to dim it.
This quarter, that fire burned bright. In this first issue of FYER News, we are taking you inside the moments that made it glow: young girls discovering their place in science, women and girls pouring into one another across generations, and a community conversation series that is putting Black girls exactly where they belong: at the center.
Welcome to the FYER.
Meet Our 2026 Liberation Academy
Where Girls Come to Be Liberated
The Liberation Academy is not a traditional classroom. It was never meant to be. It is a space designed with intention, a place where girls can exhale, where the pressure to perform, shrink, or disappear is replaced by something far more powerful: permission to simply be.
This season inside the Liberation Academy, where permission was at the center of everything. Girls showed up carrying the weight of the world: the weight of expectations, of navigating spaces not built with them in mind, of trying to figure out who they are in a world that is constantly trying to tell them who they are. And inside this space, they got to put that weight down.
[PLACEHOLDER: Insert specific session themes, activities, or moments from this quarter's Liberation Academy sessions here. Consider: What did girls work through? What did they release? What did they build? Any standout moments of breakthrough or connection?]
What makes the Liberation Academy different is not just what happens in the room. It is what girls carry out of it. The emotional intelligence they build here. The self-trust they reclaim. The boundaries they learn to hold. These are not soft skills. They are survival tools. They are leadership tools. And inside these walls, girls are learning to wield them with grace, confidence, and an unshakeable sense of self.
The Liberation Academy reminds us every single day that healing is not separate from leadership. It is the foundation of it.
Discovery Sistas — Mini Flames LEGO LEAGUE
What Happens When You Hand a Girl a Tool and Tell Her She Belongs
It started with a question. What is archaeology? What do archaeologists actually do, and why does it matter?
For the Discovery Sistas, the youngest members of the SGOF family through our Mini Flames program, that question opened a door. What walked through it over the course of ten sessions was nothing short of a transformation.
This year, Save Girls On F.Y.E.R. launched an all-girls LEGO League Explore season centered on archaeology, discovery, and identity, developed in collaboration with the Connecticut Science Center and guided fully by SGOF staff. Designed for girls ages 7–10, the program introduced STEM through a culturally grounded lens, connecting the past to the present and helping girls understand where communities come from, how they are shaped, and why their voices matter in spaces of discovery.
In the earliest sessions, the Discovery Sistas were learning new language, exploring new tools, and sitting with ideas that were entirely unfamiliar. And yet, the curiosity was immediate. Within the first few weeks, over 70% of the girls could clearly articulate what archaeologists do: that they study objects from the past to understand people, history, and community. That is not just retention. That is connection.
As the sessions moved forward, something deeper began to take shape. The girls began to understand that archaeology is not just about digging. It is about protecting stories. Honoring cultures. Helping communities understand where they come from. Science, they were learning, is a tool for respect, for identity, for keeping history alive. For many of these girls, that reframing was everything because it meant that science was not just for other people. It was for them, too.
By the midpoint of the program, the Discovery Sistas had shifted from learning to doing. Through coding, sensors, and model building, they began using the same tools that professional archaeologists use in the real world. The confidence that emerged was swift and visible. Over 80% of girls reported feeling confident coding and building independently, without needing to ask for help. What once felt new and uncertain had become something they could own.
But the heart of the Discovery Sistas' journey was never just in the skills. It was in the sisterhood. In every session, girls described their team experience as supportive, joyful, and collaborative. When challenges came, and they always do, they worked through them together. They listened to each other. They troubleshot together. They built as one. That is not just STEM learning. That is leadership in action.
In the final phase of the program, the Discovery Sistas designed their team model, created their poster, and prepared to present their work with full intention and pride. They took their own photos. They made creative decisions. They told their own story, from their very first introduction to archaeology all the way to their culminating showcase at the Connecticut Science Center, where they earned the Best Values Award. Standing in that space, they were not visitors. They were the whole point.
The Discovery Sistas are not leaving this program the same way they entered. They are leaving as thinkers, builders, problem-solvers, and storytellers. They are leaving as young leaders who understand that by learning about the past, they have the power to shape the future.
Programs like this are not the norm in the communities we serve. Culturally grounded STEM experiences that center girls of color at every stage are still rare. That is exactly why this work matters and why the Mini Flames program exists. Because the earlier a girl feels like she belongs in a room, the harder it is for the world to convince her otherwise.
Mentorship Tea Party — FILL YOUR CUP
Three Generations, One Table, and a Room Full of FYER
On April 4th, 2026, something beautiful happened at the SGOF Leadership Center. It was dressed in lace gloves, pearls, hats, and bold accessories. It smelled like herbal tea and possibility. It sounded like laughter, honest conversation, and music that made even the staff want to join in. It was the Mentorship Tea Party: Fill Your Cup — and it was unlike anything we had done before.
The idea behind Fill Your Cup was simple yet profound. For Black communities, tea has never just been a drink. It is a gathering. It is a tradition of healing and wellness. It is an act of coming together — across generations, across experiences, across differences — and choosing to pour into one another. That is exactly what this event was designed to do.
From the moment participants arrived, the environment said something important: you are expected here. The space was set with care and intentionality, reflecting the excellence and sophistication that has always existed within Black culture — not as performance, but as truth. Girls as young as 7 and women across generations came dressed in their finest, stepping into a legacy of confidence and self-expression that went far beyond fashion. It was quiet resistance. It was celebration. It was identity, worn out loud.
The experience began with Tea Talk, an affirmation and icebreaker activity designed to ground every participant in self-worth before anything else. Girls and women reflected on their internal dialogue, intentionally crafting messages of affirmation to carry them through difficult moments. Before the mentorship, before the STEM, before the runway, they filled their own cups first.
What followed was organic and extraordinary. Three generations came together in the same room: Mini Flames, Liberation Academy participants, and mentors from Pedals & STEM. Without forced structure, conversations developed naturally, creating moments where participants saw themselves reflected in one another through shared experiences, style, energy, and presence. These connections reinforced the importance of representation and the impact of simply being seen and understood. Across three generations, Mini Flames, Liberation Academy participants, and mentors from Pedals & STEM engaged in a reciprocal exchange in which every voice was valued regardless of age.
The "What's the Tea" segment brought education into the experience, exploring the historical and cultural significance of tea within Black communities: its roots in healing and wellness, its role in entrepreneurship, and its long history as a space for social gathering. Culture, participants learned, is not just something inherited. It is something practiced, protected, and passed on.
The partnership with Pedals & STEM expanded the experience into hands-on innovation through the Brew Your Brand herbal chemistry activity. Girls engaged in real scientific thinking: identifying community wellness needs, developing hypotheses, testing tea blend formulations, and analyzing results. They were not pretending to be scientists. They were scientists. And they were doing it in a space that affirmed every part of who they are.
Then came the Confidence Runway Walk, and the room shifted into something electric. Across three generations, girls and women took the runway one by one, embracing their individuality, moving boldly, and being met with celebration at every step. What began as an activity became a moment. A full-circle, collective expression of joy, pride, and liberation that brought even staff members onto the runway, because sisterhood, at SGOF, exists at every level.
Fill Your Cup did exactly what it set out to do. It educated through culture. It liberated through expression. And it celebrated the power, presence, and potential of every girl and woman in the room. When girls and women of color are placed in environments built for them, they do not just participate. They thrive, connect, and lead.
Coming In Hot This Summer
THE BLACK GIRL SUMMER SOCIAL SERIES
Because Conversations About Black Girls Should Have Black Girls in Them
Too often, conversations about Black girls happen without Black girls in the room. This summer, we are changing that with The Black Girl Summer Social Series!
Created and led by girls in Save Girls on F.Y.E.R.'s Liberation Academy, this four-part community conversation series centers the voices, experiences, and leadership of Black and brown girls ages 12 and up. Each session blends real dialogue with a Summer Social atmosphere — complete with a live DJ, games, snacks, and space to connect — creating a space that feels both joyful and real, where girls can show up fully as themselves
Through honest dialogue, shared language, and real-life storytelling, each conversation creates a brave, affirming space where Black girls speak for themselves — about safety, identity, mental health, education, representation, and the futures they deserve.
Across four sessions, girls and community members will explore what it means to feel truly seen, safe, and supported; examine how race and gender shape the everyday realities of Black girls; celebrate the mentors, pathways, and possibilities ahead; and honor the joy, culture, and brilliance that Black girlhood holds — all within an environment that feels alive with music, energy, and community.
The Black Girl Summer Social Series is open to Black and brown girls and young women, parents, caregivers, families, educators, community members, and allies who are ready to listen, learn, and actively support environments where Black and brown girls are affirmed, celebrated, and empowered to live both gently and boldly on their own terms.
A New Way To Stand Behind The FYER
This Is Not Charity. This Is Leadership Infrastructure.
Every program you just read about: the Discovery Sistas, the Tea Party, the Liberation Academy, the Summer Social Series, has something in common. None of it happens without a community willing to stand behind it.
Not just behind the idea. Behind the girls.
That is what Behind The FYER is about.
Behind The FYER is SGOF's invitation to our community, to individuals, organizations, and partners, to become a consistent, committed part of the ecosystem that makes this work possible. It is not a donation drive. It is not a one-time event. It is an ongoing commitment to protecting the brilliance, identity, and leadership that already live inside Black and Brown girls, and making sure the spaces, programs, and support systems that honor that are never at risk of disappearing.
From the very first day a Mini Flame walks through our doors to the moment a FYER Hero steps back in as a mentor, every part of our leadership pipeline requires sustained investment. The workshops. The curriculum. The healing-centered programming. The Leadership Center itself. None of it maintains itself. None of it scales on hope alone. It takes a village. And Behind The FYER is how that village is built.
Standing Behind The FYER means you believe what we believe: that girls do not need to be rescued, they need to be resourced. That leadership is not something girls grow into; it is something they already carry. And that the role of every adult, every donor, every partner, every community member who claims to care about the future of Black and Brown girls is to make sure that fire is never dimmed.
Whether you join as an individual member, a corporate sponsor, or a community partner, there is a place for you inside this ecosystem. And whatever level you step in at, you are not just giving money. You are becoming part of something that will outlast all of us.
This is not charity. This is leadership infrastructure. And it starts with you deciding to stand Behind The FYER.