Harry Bellafonte and Bella Abzug

Liz Abzug and Harry Bellafonte

On April 17, we had the privilege and honor to hold our 4^th annual fundraiser at the residence of Henry Buhl. Guests were treated to an evening of food, drink, friends, and of course, a ceremony that honored those who embody the essence of what BALI stands for. The evening’s honorees were Congresswoman, Bella’s Friend and leading Feminist, Carolyn B.Maloney for the Bella Award, Legendary Singer, Songwriter, Actor, and Civil Rights Activist, Harry Belafonte , who received  the  Bella “Fella” Award, and Emerging Writer Activist, Maya Catherine Popa who received the Andrea Young Women Leadership “ Chutzpah” Award .

The first-ever “ Excellence in Civic Engagement” Awards were given to  the two BALI Graduates:  Katelynne Bazile from the Summer 2009 training and Hannah Whalen from the Summer 2011.

Liz Abzug, the President of BALI and Olivia Torres, BALI Intern with Katelyne Bazile, the very First Civic Engagement Award Recipient, BALI Summer2009 Graduate

The award is given to young women who choose to embrace a leadership role and commit themselves to civic engagement activities. For those who have had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Bazile and Ms. Whalen, there is no question that they are the quintessential BALI girl: strong,  articulate, dedicated,  and committed to becoming civic activists and  leaders.

One of Katelynne’s most outstanding displays of leadership occurred while working with other BALI graduates and interns on preparing for a V-Day Cabaret on February 11^th, 2012. In the weeks before the cabaret, Ms. Bazile led our volunteers and helped them prepare several choreographed dances and poems for the cabaret.  She organized the performance practices and was quick to help anyone who needed guidance. Ms. Bazile was dedicated to making the cabaret a success! Katelynne was so excited that all proceeds were going to earthquake relief efforts for Haiti; Ms. Bazile is a proud Haitian American who wanted to do anything she could to help.

Ms Bazile later expressed that she was touched to learn that we at BALI wanted to join the effort to raise money for Haiti. She said, “It’s very seldom to be in a program that cares completely about their attendees….it warmed my heart to know that they… cared enough to do this with me.”  Ms Bazile added, “I’m so grateful to have met all the great people at BALI…BALI changes the life of everyone who attends it. I am proud to say that I was and am a  part of the BALI Family.

Liz Abzug, the President of BALI, and Zahura Alam, BALI Intern with Hannah Whalen, BALI Summer2011 Graduate

Hannah’s dedication and passion for BALI and BALI’s mission was evident in the effort and work she put into developing BALI’s program brochure. In talking about her motivation for her efforts, Hannah said she wanted to create the brochure in order to “highlight for young women all of the positive aspects of what the Bella Abzug Leadership Institute has to offer in order to help prepare them for an outspoken role as one of tomorrow’s leaders.”

Ms. Whalen felt strongly about finding a way to reach out to more young women because she felt that her personal BALI experience from the Summer 2011 was invaluable and important to her development. She said, “I didn’t know it at the time, but soon quickly realized that I’d been inducted into a powerful sisterhood network that consisted of young women my own age, and many mentors, older than we were, who would guide us.  These mentors took us through a series of workshops designed to open our eyes and to help us find our own voices…I have to say that I learned as much from my group peers as I did from our mentors, since each young woman had a deeply personal point of view that I found to be beautiful, sincere, and moving. I felt that I was among girls who would become the future leaders and voices of our nation and world… Our involvement in the 9^th Annual Youth Assembly at the United Nations made me know how important it is to be linked to a vaster network of people…”

We at BALI look forward to seeing Katelynne and Hannah continue their efforts and help pave the path for other young women. Congratulations, Katelynne and Hannah! Hats off to you!

Liz Abzug, the President of BALI, and Yu Wai Maung, BALI Program Coordinator with BALI Summer Graduates

Please check out the pictures from our Fourth Annual Bella and Bella Fella Awards Fundraiser at our Facebook: Bella Abzug Leadership Inc.

invite you to attend

The 4th Annual

Bella and Bella Fella Awards Reception

Honoring 

———–

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney

for the Bella Award

Singer, Actor and Civil Right Activist

Harry Belafonte

for the Bella “Fella” Award

Emerging Writer Activist

Maya Catherine Popa

for the “Andrea”Young Woman Leadership ” Chutzpah”Award

Hosted at the Residence of Henry Buhl

102 Prince Street, Soho, NYC

(Between Mercer and Greene Street )

Tuesday, April 17th 2012

6:30pm-9:00pm

If you are interested in attending the event, please email BALI Program Coordinator , Yu Wai Maung, at yuwai@abzuginstitute.org or call our office at 212-650-3071. The response card below contains ticket prices for the fundraiser. You can print out the response card and mail it to our mailing office at :

Liz Abzug Consultant Services

105 Duane Street, #21C

New York,NY 10007

Or you can pay for the ticket by pressing DONATE on top right corner of our website and by using PAYPAL. Please be sure to include the number of party and  full names of the party you are bringing with you. We look forward to seeing you on Tuesday, April 17th.

Save the Date for the 4th Annual Bella & Bella Fella Awards Fundraiser on April 17th

Dear BALI’s Loyal Supporters,

We cordially invite you to attend our 4th Annual Bella & Bella Fella Awards Fundraiser on Tuesday, April 17th. We appreciate your support in our mission to mentor and train young women and girls as we sow the seeds of a better future. We thank you for your continuing gifts and we hope that you will attend our fundraiser to make a bigger impact on our leadership and debate training program this year.

SAVE THE DATE FOR

THE  FOURTH ANNUAL BELLA & BELLA FELLA AWARDS FUNDRAISER OF

THE BELLA ABZUG LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE

HONORING

CONGRESSWOMAN CAROLYN MALONEY

FOR THE BELLA AWARD

HARRY BELFAFONTE

FOR THE BELLA FELLA AWARD

MAYA CATHERINE POPA

FOR THE “ANDREA” WOMAN LEADERSHIP ” CHUTZPAH” AWARD

TUESDAY, APRIL 17TH  2012

102 PRINCE STREET, SOHO, NY

(BETWEEN MERCER AND GREENE STREET)

6:30PM-9:00PM

More information on how to purchase tickets for the fundraiser will be posted soon. Please contact BALI Program Coordinator , Yu Wai Maung via yuwai@abzuginstitute.org for any questions you may have.

Leadership Seminar and Debate Tournament Participants with Liz Abzug, the President/CEO of BALI , Vanessa Codorniu , Wellness and Self-Empowerment Trainer and BALI Interns

The Leadership Seminar and Debate Tournament Series on Saturday, February 11th presented by the Bella Abzug Leadership Institute in collaboration with the New York City Urban Debate League was a great success!!!

30 young women leaders from New York City Title I High Schools and Middle Schools were presented with lectures by expert guest speakers from the Milano the New School University Graduate Faculty. The topic was “Women in the Media.” The young women were asked to think about the issues embedded in mainstream media and how these issues related to them, such as negative body images and stereotypes about women.

Middle School Students from the East Bronx Academy

The Milano the New School University Graduate Students, Cassandra Alvarez,Miosotis Perez, Odia Barker and Daphna Lewinshtein participating on a panel discussion about Women in the Media on Saturday, February 11th.

The students participated in competitive debate tournaments after the lectures and discussion. Each student was awarded with a trophy and other gifts for their remarkable abilities in debate and unparalleled desire to becoming strong community leaders.

To conclude the day’s events, BALI’s very own wellness and empowerment trainer, Vanessa Codorniu facilitated a Leadership Circle. Ms. Codorniu encouraged the 30 young women leaders to express their thoughts and reflect on their experiences with the training.

The Bella Abzug Leadership Institute would like to thank everyone who made this event possible.

Please join us for our next Leadership Seminar and Debate Tournament on  Saturday, April 28^th 2012 at Hunter College. Please visit the Bella Abzug Leadership Institute Facebook page for more pictures from the tournament.

Olivia Torres at the United Nations Global Peace Conference- BALI Intern

As an Intern of the Bella Abzug Leadership Institute,  I had the pleasure of attending an official United Nations event on February 15^th, 2012. The event was part of an annual campaign presented by the New York City Season for Nonviolence Task Force in cooperation with the Permanent Mission of the Republic of the Philippines to the United Nations. This year’s theme for A Season for Nonviolence is “Global Peace Through Social Media.” The event was enlightening and thought-provoking. I even had the privilege of meeting Permanent Representative, Ambassador Libran Cabactulan (Phillipines).

The keynote speaker, Nipun Mehta, was incredibly excited about this year’s theme. During the event, the key note speaker asked us: Would Gandhi use social media like Facebook and Twitter? He believed that Gandhi would absolutely use social media because social media can facilitate the three fundamental things that must be done for any social change to occur. These three things, according to Mr. Mehta, are (1) raising awareness, (2) create an impact, and (3) transform the heart. To illustrate how social media can be used to create social change, he spoke about the Pink Chaddi Campaign. The Pink Chaddi campaign is truly inspiring: through Facebook, people from around the world were asked to send pink underwear to government officials in a small town in South India in order to force the government to take action against a group of community members who physically assaulted women who went to bars. At the end of the event, Mr. Mehta challenged us to think about starting our own social media campaigns.

After the event, I thought about how this knowledge about social media’s power to create social change can benefit the Bella Abzug Leadership Institute. I hope we can carry back Nipun Mehta’s message to the Bella Abzug Leadership Institute and weave it into our future programming. After all, BALI’s core mission to empower and train young women to become leaders has its underpinnings in a mission to achieve social change: equality for women. Perhaps our BALI trainees and graduates, after learning what I learned at the event, can become as inspired by the power of social media as I am now.

The One Voice Choir Perfroms at the United Nations Global Peace Conference

The Bella Abzug Leadership Institute and the New York City Great Debaters are partnering up to provide a series of leadership and debate conferences for young women in New York City at Hunter College on February 11th and April 21st. All these events are open to all high school and middle school female students and schools for FREE . 

Our conferences include seminars and lectures on topics for young women presented by expert guest speakers, debate training, a debate tournament with an awards ceremony for all participants, mentorship opportunities and networking with successful college and career women, and more!

Our focus is Title I students and schools that lack many of these debate opportunities.  Our mission is to close the achievement gap by providing the very best leadership and debate training opportunities that are currently unavailable for the majority of Title I students.  A typical debate tournament runs in the thousands of dollars, which is only accessible to the top private and wealthy schools in the country.  We provide the same opportunities for free for anyone!

We  are working with over a dozen New York City Title I schools and growing including the Bronx School for Law, Government and Justice, East Bronx Academy, ACORN Community High School, Brooklyn Tech High School, the Institute for Collaborative Education, KIPP Academy Charter School, PS 278, Urban Civics Academy, and many other schools!

If you have any questions , please contact Yu Wai Maung, BALI Program Coordinator at 212-650-3021 or email: yuwai@abzuginstitute.org

The first time I stepped foot into Bella Abzug Leadership Institute’s office at Hunter College. I immediately felt at home. The program coordinator, Yu Wai Maung, greeted me graciously.  She told me how excited she was to find someone interested for the fall internship and I told her how pleased I was to finally find an internship beneficial to my major.

Four hardworking, yet mesmerizing months later, I found that the Bella Abzug Leadership Institute is more than a program specially fitted for young political science majors like myself. I’ve met so many influential people that I wouldn’t have been able to come close to alone thanks to BALI. Attending and taking part in events such as the Anita Hill 20 Years Later: Sex, Power, and Speaking Truth Conference are things I consider to be milestones in my life. Hearing Ms. Hill speak about the struggles and obstacles she faced 20 years ago made me feel as if I was sitting in that courtroom myself the fall of 1991. Hearing her and her panel speak on issues such as acceptable behaviors in the workplace and being true to oneself empowered me.

My second event was located at Bergen Community College. Yu Wai and I traveled from New York City to New Jersey to meet with Ambassador Sichan Siv.  He is an international bestselling author of “Golden Bones”, an American dream story. Ambassador Sichan Siv was nominated by George W. Bush in 2001 and unanimously confirmed by the Senate as a United States Ambassador to the United Nations. For me to shake his hand, knowing he overcame his own obstacles of poverty and genocide in Cambodia, truly humbled me. It was then, that I came to the conclusion that if Ambassador Siv was brave and daring enough to journey to America despite all the opposition and odds against, I can surely get to where I want to be in life.

Finally, meeting Liz Abzug, the daughter of the famous Congresswoman, social activist, and leader Bella Abzug,  was almost like meeting her mother face to face. It is apparent that Liz Abzug adopted her mother’s ideologies, leadership, and strength perfectly to build a successful “monument” in memorial of her mother.

It’s Anita Hill’s, Ambassor Siv’s, and Bella Abzug’s ambitious nature that inspires and brings out the best in young women like myself.

Ever since my first interview in 2011, I have never once regretted being a part of this amazing family. I have met amazing individuals and my only hope is that I will use their past experiences and knowledge so I can follow the same path to greatness and success

BALI’s Winter & Spring 2012 Interns

BALI's Interns

Angela Sabblah, Olivia Torres & Zahura Alam