Girls' Work from Class of 2011

As the girls approached Second Life, they were gaining ideas as how to visually represent all their hard work and research that they had collected over the course of the program. Second Life is a free 3D online virtual world. Users are from all over the world and connect and socialize through the use of text and voice chat. It is also used as an expansion for people in the business world as a means to promote their products. Our girls were taught how to 'build' and construct on a 3D virtual grid. They also learned advanced skills such as basic programming languages and design as a main aide to help construct their concepts of their individual projects. They worked with online residents who assisted as mentors to the girls for technical support.

Jessica's Project: The Effects of Child Sexual Abuse (Above)

Jessica, age 16, invested over a year constructing her concept of her project. She decided to build giant cupcakes (which took her 2 months to create from scratch) and to surround it with a CandyLand theme. She created all her own objects on her own. She wanted to show both a negative and positive side to her project. The positive side would be the CandyLand theme where she shows how children should be happy. As you navigate though her projects, you then come to the negative side, which is the child abuse. She has created a graveyard and a tombstone that represents each state that informs you of the statistics in that specific state for child abuse. She has also included personal testimonies of the victims of child abuse that you can read about.

Aimee's Project: Promiscuity & STD's as a result of Child Sexual Abuse (Above)

Aimee, age 15, invested 2 summers constructing the concept of her project. The inspiration for her project came from the movie Star Wars. She wanted a futuristic theme and also wanted it to hover over water. She created all her objects on her own. She defines what her project is in each of the domes and also includes statistics. She also edited her own video taken from the Tyra show that supports her research. She included this in the last dome in her project and it can be seen when you walk through her project in-world.