El
Paso’s Girl Scouts of the Rio Grade chapter made EPCC campuses
their home for a week long Fashion Camp. Over 75 Girl Scouts were
involved in workshops during their visits to the TM and VV campuses.
“We wanted to show the girls what kind of career opportunities
were at EPCC for the fashion industry,” said Sandra Vera, speaking
for Girl Scouts.
The girls were taught skills such as etiquette, how to properly apply
make-up and did various projects like tie-dye shirts and silk scarves
then were introduced to television and newspaper production.
Walter Davis, part-time fashion instructor helped the girls with tie-dying
shirts, hang drying them in trees and in making scarves and serapes
at the TM Fashion technology lab.
“It was a lot of fun. The girl scouts did really well. It was
neat to introduce them to certain activities. They also got to redo
t-shirts. It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun,” said Davis.
“In general, working with community college students takes so
long to teach them these concepts, but these kids picked it up fast,”
said Davis. “They don’t have a career based on it yet
and were willing to make mistakes and just go for it because they’re
young, they have more freedom.”
Davis said although it was messy, it was nice to help them create
and allow them to see the process fashion goes through. Throughout
their week at EPCC the girls also visited the Mass Communications
Department and El Conquistador. For the creation of the Girl Scout’s
Fashion magazine, the girls took turns taking silly photos using new
Macintosh computers.
They were able to see how the newspaper is laid out, from computer
to paper then to print. The girls were given a quick lesson in media
production and had the opportunity to make clips with a video camera.
The clips were later made into a movie.
Some of the girls also visited KTSM and KCCR, the radio station at
the college. Vera said the girls visited different departments to
learn all aspects of fashion including production.
“At this age, there are so many things that distract their attention,”
said Vera.
One of those things might be music and dance. Gerrard Jibbs from Desert
Eagle Productions specializes in teaching kids to dance hip-hop. They
usually teach kids from age four and up and offers their services
to programs that help the community.
“Our dance school serves mentorship to kids in the community
as well, like the Girl Scouts,” said Jibbs. “The program
they put together was phenomenal to me.” The girls only had
one, hour-long session for two days in order to earn the dance steps
for the finale, a fashion show held at the Scottish Right Temple.
Now that the Girl Scouts had their dance steps down and costumes,
it was time to move to make-up. The fashion camp was intended for
older girls aged 11to17.
Carlos De La Garza from the El Paso Playhouse, taught the girls application
of run-way make-up and worked on breaking bad make-up habits such
as the overuse of glitter, by showing them how they looked with glitter
under a black light.
“I had to get through cultural blocks and teach them what’s
good in a fashion sense,” said De La Garza. “It’s
not so much of what they’ve seen in their cultural environment.”
In De La Garza’s opinion, parents and teachers might teach basic
skills like cooking or babysitting siblings, but not how to beautify.
“No one ever really teaches the theory of make-up and what can
be achieved with it- to enhance, not distract,” said De La Garza.
Using photos of them in their make-up and silly shots created on the
computer with bios and stories written by them, the Girl Scouts are
creating a fashion magazine of their own.
“I think it was a great opportunity, the girls learned a lot,”
said Vera. “For 80 girls who came everyday for a week, it showed
they liked it.”
