As the end of the school year approaches, many clubs around McLean are working on wrapping up their events from this year and brainstorming new ideas to help their clubs succeed next year. Like many clubs at McLean, the Girls Leadership Committee (GLC), which works to spread awareness on women’s issues and promote leadership amongst young women, is preparing to welcome its new class of club officers.

“I’m really looking forward to getting to know our new executive board,” said junior Allie Deutsch, co-president of GLC. “I think that working together on a club leadership team is a good way to meet people and as I’m reviewing the applications, I think we have a lot of very strong candidates [for next year].”

In addition to welcoming a new board of executive members, the current GLC members are working on ideas for new events and activities for the club to participate in next year. Among these new ideas include possible partner events with the Feminist Club, more group projects throughout the year for members to work on during meetings and even activities centered on self-protection.

“We were thinking of hosting a self-defense workshop with a professional in the wrestling room,” Deutsch said. “ We hope this would be able to encourage girls to defend themselves if they ever find themselves in a difficult situation, because sadly, the world isn’t as safe as it seems within the confines of McLean and we have to be prepared.”

The club members also welcome the idea of hosting similar events to those held this year, such as their annual menstrual product drive for the local community and the guest speaker events.

“We recently had Alicia Plerhoples from Georgetown University as a guest speaker and she was a really excellent speaker,” Deutsch said. “I learned a lot from her story and I think that it inspired many people. So I’m hoping that we can continue to have motivational speakers in the future who can kind of shape the way we see the world and also help us understand how women can grow within all professional fields.”

For more updates on the GLC’s upcoming events, students can join the Schoology page with the code KW7G-P7CT-N858D and follow their Instagram at @mcleanglc for more information.