Girl Ambassador Program (GAP)

Our girls don’t just want equal opportunities, but every opportunity

When we think about the future of work, we see Black women in the boardroom, starting businesses, and leading the next tech revolution.

By creating access to relevant skills, experiences, and support, we can ensure Black Women not only see themselves in those roles, but have a clear path and the resources to get there. That’s why the Girl Ambassador Program (GAP) was created.

Applications reopen in December 2025!

Getting Ready to Work: The GAP Experience

What if before you got your driver's license, you were equipped with skills and certifications to help you on your career path? What if you had opportunities to learn digital, professional, and soft skills alongside other Black girls who share your same drive to succeed?

The Girl Ambassador Program (GAP) is a four-year workforce development initiative designed to equip Black girls with hybrid skills, leadership training, and professional readiness to secure better-paying jobs and leadership roles. Through a tiered approach, participants receive personalized instruction, mentorship from thought leaders, and exposure to job readiness, networking, and financial literacy. Rising seniors with a minimum of two years in the program are eligible for residential internships to support their continued education.

Alumnae, ages 18–22, can access ongoing internship opportunities while pursuing higher education, ensuring they thrive academically and professionally, breaking barriers, and striving for long-term success.

Our sessions run twice a week. These sessions are a chance for participants to learn and also build their own peer networks while creating a bond of sisterhood through cultivated experiences. We take field trips, meet powerful professionals from all ethnic groups and backgrounds, learn self-efficacy and confidence. All of this culminates in a six week paid summer internship where participants will get the chance to put their skills to work in the real world with one of our vetted hiring partners.

We recognize it is important to teach the next generation the power of Black philanthropy. Additionally, girls will learn the power of paying it forward by participating in a giving circle and fundraising efforts.

Attendance and Participation

Showing up is an important part of getting the most out of your Girl Ambassador experience. We allow two excused absences for weekday virtual sessions, and two excused absence for in-person sessions. We understand that emergencies happen and participants may need to be excused from class. We ask that participants and their parents communicate any anticipated absence with our program staff and make arrangements to make up any missed work. Participants who miss the maximum number of program sessions allowed may be removed from the program and/or forfeit part or all of the allotted program incentives.

Benefits

At the end of the program, each girl will walk away with a new network of peers, allies, and mentors, transferable skills, in-demand career certifications, and experiences she will take with her for the rest of her life. She will be full and confidently prepared for work with a community to support her. Participants have experiences working in a safe, brave and productive space via the support of certified instructors, guest speakers and facilitators, and out of school time counselors. They will progress through the curriculum towards acquiring career and IT certifications, earning hours to be applied towards Virginia Department of Education’s High-Quality Work-Based Learning (HQWBL) learning credits, and earning a chance of being offered a paid summer internship with a vetted Hiring Partner, courtesy of GFAC’s established community partnerships, upon program completion.

“Girls For A Change didn’t give me my worth, they helped me see my worth.”
- Genisus Holland

Girls For A Change Education Fund

In 2020, Girls For A Change established an education fund to provide continuing education scholarships to Black girls who successfully completed four years of the Girl Ambassador Program.

In 2024, Subject Matter, a grantmaking institution, awarded Girls For A Change $25,000 to establish an official Education Fund, with fund management by the Community Foundation for a greater Richmond who will direct the distribution of funds to recipients.

Apply for a Scholarship

Become a Hiring Partner

Meet Our Hiring Partners

Become A Hiring Partner

Black women have been historically excluded and exploited by the rules of the American economy. Even before the onset of the Covid pandemic, when Black women suffered the most significant unemployment in the United States, they also suffered on-the-job marginalization and suppression. On average, Black women and women of color in the United States are paid less than their counterparts. As a result, the average woman of color misses out on more than $1,000,000 during her career. Gender and racial equality are critical for organizations that want to perform better.

Because of these harsh realities, Black women frequently turn to entrepreneurship to mitigate the racist and sexist realities that limit their opportunities in the workplace. Yet even in entrepreneurship, Black women face disproportionate challenges - namely the lack of adequate capital and mentorship, and the inability to test their business ideas without jeopardizing their financial security. Girls For A Change (GFAC) is on a mission to help Black girls and young women chart stronger paths towards economic success and empowerment as they enter adulthood.

Provide Safe and Brave Learning and Workspace

Learn, develop and apply a culturally-relevant, socio-emotional workplace competence for young Black women in the Greater Richmond area.
Be Part of the Solution Amid the Pandemic

The current COVID-19 crisis has exposed and is widening the equity gap and has exacerbated the challenges Black girls face. Now, more than ever, we need to ensure those wanting to enhance their skills and have gainful summer work experience have the opportunity to do so. You can help us fill these gaps by partnering with us to provide summer jobs for participants.

Increase Opportunity

As a hiring partner you offer a unique lens into a career path our participants may not have known existed, while connecting to individuals who they might never have met before. As a hiring partner you open pathways for new career opportunities in your field and business. This increases opportunity and strengthens our participants’ career options.
Catalyze Culture Change

For organizations seeking to become more adaptive and innovative, culture change is often the most challenging part of the transformation. Innovation demands new behaviors from leaders and employees that are often antithetical to corporate cultures, which are historically focused on operational excellence and efficiency.

Program Schedule & Deadline

The Girl Ambassador program begins every spring and goes through the summer. Girls attend various workshops and build their skills through specialized training sessions. In the summer, they take action—volunteering, job shadowing, participating in paid or unpaid internships and working on projects for real employers.

The Application Process
The application process for the 2025 Girl Ambassador Program closes on Thursday, January 23, 2025 at 11:59PM

The Program Schedule
The program will require participants to commit to 6 hours a week. Participants will attend class for 1.5 hours during the weekdays (*Tuesdays) and 4.5 hours on *Saturday.

The program runs from February 1, 2025 - August 1, 2025. Internships will take place over the summer months, June - August.

*Schedule is subject to change

The Broken Rung' Is Stunting Career Growth for Women of Color

McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.org conducted a new survey of more than 27,000 employees and found women of color are facing declining promotion rates despite career gains made in recent years.

Read the Article

Hiring Partners

Each participant will be matched with a hiring partner working in person. remotely or on a hybrid schedule, depending on the hiring partner requirements.

Hiring partners and the participants attend a speed hiring event, one day in-person or virtual orientation During the internship, there are ongoing professional development opportunities, including diversity and inclusion in the workplace training, resume workshops, and career exploration. Hiring partners, mentors and instructors are available to provide guidance and support and continue to learn and unlearn practices that have harmed Black women in the workplace as they help our participants prepare to enter the workplace.

2024 Internship commitment six weeks June - August.

Words From Our Hiring Partners

"The Science Museum of Virginia has been thrilled to be a hiring partner for Girl Ambassador participants. Our interns have been simply amazing girls, and we have learned as much from them as we hope they learned from us about the inner workings and career choices available at museums. We can't wait to meet our student for this upcoming summer!" - Timshel Purdum, Virginia C. Ellett Deputy Director of Education, Science Museum of Virginia

“I think this is such a fabulous program, and am so excited that we are able to participate. We were blessed to have three incredible young ladies who worked in the Dean’s Office in the School of Education. They did a fantastic job and were a meaningful part of the team within the Dean’s Office. The experience was very meaningful for us and was definitely a bi-directionally beneficial program.” – Andrew P. Daire, Dean, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Education

2024 Hiring Partners

These companies believe in investing in the life, personal and professional development of Black girls living throughout the Richmond Metropolitan Area.