Educating Girls for a World of Opportunity: NCGS Announces 2007 ‘Women of Achievement’ Award Recipients

CONCORD, Mass., March 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The National Coalition of Girls’ Schools (http://www.ncgs.org/) has named legendary primatologist Jane Goodall and astronaut Sally Ride, America’s first woman in space, as winners of this year’s NCGS “Women of Achievement” awards.

“These extraordinary women personify the qualities of leadership, intellectual curiosity and public commitment that girls’ schools seek to instill,” Whitney Ransome and Meg Milne Moulton, NCGS Co-Executive Directors, said in a joint statement. “They are role models — icons, really — for girls and young women everywhere preparing to take on the many challenges and opportunities today’s globalized world presents.”

The awards will be presented in June at the NCGS Annual Conference, “Educating Girls for a World of Opportunity,” which takes place this year at Roland Park Country School in Baltimore, Maryland (http://www.rpcs.org/). The conference brings girls’ school educators and student delegates together with leading experts from around the world for lectures and workshops designed to promote and hone excellence in the education of girls and young women.

Dr. Goodall, winner of the International category, is being recognized for her lifelong dedication to researching chimpanzees in the wild, protecting their environment and raising public awareness. She will address the conference via videotape while Jean McCarty, Executive Director of the Goodall Institute’s “Roots and Shoots” program (http://www.janegoodall.org/), accepts the award on her behalf.

Dr. Ride, winner of the USA category, has blazed trails for women in the sciences throughout her career, both as an astronaut and an education advocate through the Sally Ride Science Foundation (http://www.sallyridescience.com/) and the many science clubs, camps and learning programs it conducts. Her presence at the 2007 conference will be a reunion of sorts, as she has been a speaker at previous NCGS events as well as numerous NCGS Member Schools.

NCGS represents more than 100 single-sex schools for girls in the United States, with international members and affiliates in Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Educating some 48,000 students, NCGS member schools are private and public, day and boarding, urban and rural, big and small. In short, they represent the full diversity of today’s educational landscape.

Online at: http://www.ncgs.org/.

NOTE TO EDITORS: For Use Around International Women’s Day, March 8

National Coalition of Girls’ Schools

CONTACT: Carolyn Colletti of National Coalition of Girls’ Schools,+1-978-368-9086, news@ncgs.org

Web site: http://www.ncgs.org/