Head Of The Class: Help Gawker Help Young Girls

This October, Gawker Media is participating in a charitable challenge with the amazing website Donors Choose.org. And we are asking you, our readers, to help us out.

Instead of spending the month saving, and giving out, candy and sweets, Jezebel, and our sister blogs in the Gawker Media Network (Deadspin, Gawker, io9, Gizmodo, Fleshbot, Lifehacker, Kotaku, and Jalopnik), will be raising money for education. You can check out the Gawker Media page here. Each blog will be picking 4 or 5 different projects that they want to highlight (although there are literally hundreds of important projects) and asking readers to please set aside a little of their hard earned cash for these kids.

We're doing it all through Donors Choose. Donors Choose is a website that links schools in need directly with charitable individuals like yourselves. It allows you to view the various projects and decide exactly where your money is going to go. Many of these schools lack funding for even the most basic things, including books, notebooks, pencils and paper. Some of them are looking for calculators or other techy gadgets. We have decided to focus on a few worthy projects that aim to promote self-confidence among young women through education. Our choices are:

Inspire Young Women In Science: Ms. C's classroom in NYC is looking for lab stools, so that their young girls can experience what it is like to be in an actual lab. The girls are currently learning science in an overcrowded classroom, and Ms. C hopes that through replicating the conditions of a science lab, her kids could get a better feel for what a career in science would be like. This high poverty school needs a total of $937.

Girls In Love With Books: Ms. W from Florida has started a book club for girls, but unfortunately, they don't have enough books. She's looking for funding to purchase three books for each girl. Her reading list includes awesome titles like Tuck Everlasting and Stargirl. They need a total of $486 to make this happen.

What Is Space Like From A Woman's Perspective?: Many girls are not encouraged to enter careers in science or math. And in inner-city Michigan, an amazing career seems even more out of reach. Ms. A would like to show her students that they can become astronauts, biologists, and pilots by providing them with books that tell the stories of real women who have done so. The total project cost is $546.

Interactive Notebooks For Female Algebra Students: This high-need school in North Carolina is looking for funding to help their female algebra students to pass a difficult end-of-course test to fulfill graduation requirements. Ms. A teaches a small group of girls year round and would like to provide them with colorful notebooks and pens to better organize their notes. She is asking for a total of $320.

Since this is a monthlong event, we're confident that our readers will rise to the occasion and help this batch of classrooms meet their goal. This is why we're asking for our readers to look through the projects on Donors Choose (they helpfully provide a search feature, if you want to narrow down your scope) and suggest any other worthy projects in the comments. We'll update you on the progress of all this as the month goes on.

Send an email to Katy Kelleher, the author of this post, at katy@jezebel.com.

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