Rachel Muir: Thank you! It's a pleasure to be here!

Rachel Muir: Sure. Girlstart empowers girls in math, science, and technology. We teach girls everything from how to build a web site, to how to build a robot, and we have a lot of fun doing it!

Rachel Muir: I started Girlstart when I was 26 years old. It all began in my living room with $500 and a credit card. I had a lot of volunteers that helped--family, friends, and students.

Rachel Muir: From family and friends. The next step was trying to survive with no money! $500 is not a lot. It took nine months to raise enough money to get the company going. That was because I wrote a grant for $75,000, and that's what got Girlstart moving. I worked 80 hours a week; I still work 50 hours a week. It's been almost five years, so that's not typical.

Rachel Muir: I believed in myself, and that I could do it. I knew it would be the most challenging thing I ever did, and that's one of the reasons I did it. I knew that nothing would challenge my self-esteem more. I like challenges!

Rachel Muir: My mommy! My mom has really been such a champion. She always believed in me, and she always told me, "You can do it. There's nothing you can't do."

Rachel Muir: Hmm. (laughing) That's a hard question! I don't think I'd change anything!

Rachel Muir: I would say biotechnology, engineering, and IT (Information Technology). Those are all going to be hot. Girls need to know that taking advanced math and science in high school is extremely important. It is THE gateway to going into those fields. If girls do not take advanced math and science in high school, it's very unlikely that they'll advance into any of those fields.

Rachel Muir: You could talk to your high school counselor. I don't really know enough about your school, or the jobs in your area, to answer that. If I were you, Suki, it would be advanced math and science, and taking advantage of internship programs, where they are available. Some have graphic designs programs. Really, every school is different.

Rachel Muir: Go to the library, or work on it after school. There's a lot of stuff out there, and finding it online is a great way to look for it.

Rachel Muir: No. This is a program to encourage girls in math and science; it's what we're doing. There are a lot of programs for kids out there, and boys make up the majority of the participants. That's why it's important for girls to have their own programs, like Girlstart.

Rachel Muir: It was an amazing experience I'll never forget! Very thrilling! I won the "Use Your Life" award, which is given to people who are making a difference in their communities. I got to be on the show, which was a show about girls and self-esteem.

Rachel Muir: Yes, we do programs in schools. You can email info@girlstart.org to find out more. We have the first technology center for girls in Austin, TX. We do Saturday and after school programs for girls here at the technology center. We also do programs for girls in schools, and those are typically after school.

Rachel Muir: No, we don't. We don't have catalogs. We have brochures, and you can call us and request a brochure. But since you're already online, I'd recommend that you visit us at www.girlstart.org, and sign up for the newsletter. That's the way to get the latest and the greatest!

Rachel Muir: Nope! I was totally discouraged. I got the message that girls weren't good in math and science. That's a message a lot of girls get, and it's something we're trying to address at Girlstart. Some of that is getting the message out to educators, as well as the girls themselves. That's pretty hard to do. Teachers teach what they are taught. Teachers who are interested in taking action and doing programs and projects to help girls in these subjects are the primary audience, apart from girls, for Girlstart. A teacher has to be interested in this area in order to get involved.

Rachel Muir: It happens a lot! Every day you get discouraged about something else. I think about the successes, and remember those.

Rachel Muir: Wow. That is a tough question! Gosh. 'Living' takes out a lot right there. I'm so lucky to have so many incredible mentors. One of them is Ingrid Vanderveldt, who is CEO of a company called 212 Studios. Also, Liz Carpenter, former Press Secretary to Lady Bird Johnson, and Sarah Weddington. Of course, in the past, there was Eleanor Roosevelt. If I could meet her, that would be amazing. Margaret Sanger is pretty inspirational, too.

Rachel Muir: Sometimes I think about working for a company, because I think it would be nice to have a break, and not have such tremendous responsibility on my shoulders. But once you're an entrepreneur, I think you're always an entrepreneur, and it's difficult to go back to having a boss! So I think about starting other companies. I have lots of ideas, but they're secret! (wink) Personally, I would only work for a company as a consultant. I think I have a lot to offer as a consultant, so it would offer the greatest benefit, and it would also offer me the most freedom.

Rachel Muir: I was a liberal arts major, so I took everything. I wish I'd been encouraged in math and science earlier on. By the time I was in college, the door was already closed on me studying engineering or computer science.

Rachel Muir: Go to the library! Libraries are great places. Not only do they have PCs there, but they also have a lot of after-school programs. You can also sign up and take a class through schools, or the YMCA, or other places.

Rachel Muir: We only have offices in Austin, TX, but if you would like to volunteer, you can find out more at www.girlstart.org by clicking on the "Volunteer" section. There are a variety of roles for volunteers, and that list is constantly updated.

Rachel Muir: It is very, very stressful! I go to yoga and work out, and I try to take vacations, but I don't take nearly as many as a normal person does. It's stressful; I can't lie about that. For anyone who is thinking of starting a company, you think about it all the time--when you're awake, and sleeping. The payoff has to be worth it, and, for me, it definitely is.

Rachel Muir: Write a grant. Girlstart is a full-time job, so I really can't see past my tasks for today, much less what I'm going to do tomorrow. I raise money every single day. Every day I'm writing grants, getting individual donations, getting event sponsors, and doing fund-raisers. That part of the job is constant. For example, with Oprah, she gave us $100,000. The next day I had to go out and write another grant. It never ends. Yes, you get funding, but you spend that funding. At www.girlstart.org, you can even donate online!

Rachel Muir: It's fun! It's a lot of fun. It's always challenging, and always exciting. I have a fabulous team that I have the opportunity to work with, and the girls are great. Seeing the light bulb go off, and seeing them realize, "I can do this," is just amazing. That's a major success story. Aside from girls having fun here, which is number one, they are learning about math and science, and that they can DO math and science. They believe they can do it. The success stories just jump off the page. We have girls who've improved their grades in math and science. We've had girls who have gone on to decide, in high school, that they want to have careers in math and science. We even have a girl at Girlstart who told us she'd learned English through Girlstart (she was a native Spanish-speaker). You never know how you're going to change a girl's life, and we all have that opportunity.

Rachel Muir: We had a girl come to summer camp last summer, and the camp was about stocks. The girls were learning to write business plans, and learning to follow the stock market. We had a girl who went to that camp who was so interested that she really pulled up her grades in math and science, and she is now trying to get into an advanced program in math and science in high school.

Rachel Muir: You could maybe call a community college in your area, or talk with a counselor at your school. I can't really give advice where it's so area-specific. There are job readiness programs in many communities, and there may be one in your community.

Rachel Muir: Yes. Funding is definitely the biggest challenge. It's challenging to juggle it all, and also challenging to run a team--to manage a team. You have to constantly be thinking about other people's needs, and how to fulfill those needs and be a great manager, which is hard! It's very, very hard. I didn't have any special training for that, and there isn't a lot of training out there that I've found. We're a non-profit organization, so we don't have $50,000 for something like a Tom Peters seminar. I've certainly learned about grant writing and fundraising, but I haven't been too impressed by the management courses out there. I think it's like a baptism by fire; you make mistakes, pick yourself up, and dust yourself off.

Rachel Muir: Those are hard questions! Can I be like an Enron executive, and plead the Fifth? (wink) I would like to think I would have a family in ten years, and that Girlstart will be in a really good place. I'd like to think that society will have changed positively in 10 years, but I think there will always be a need for Girlstart. And as evidence of that, the number of women who have graduated in engineering and computer science have decreased since the 1980s.

Rachel Muir: The last book I read was "The Giant's House" by Elizabeth McCracken. It was great! I recommend it. My favorite author is David Sedaris. It's so funny! You can't stop laughing; you'll laugh so hard you cry! Read any of them; they're all good.

Rachel Muir: Sure! We are making some changes in our programs, and, in a couple of years, we are going to have a program up with an online web tutorial. Those won't be available until 2004, but that will truly make Girlstart something anyone can do, anywhere. I've been working on a three-year grant that we've just submitted to the National Science Foundation, and it's something we're working on, and trying to get support from a number of foundations. And once that's done, we're working on the next three-year plan. Once we get one underway, that's just the beginning.

Rachel Muir: Not a stupid question; there are no stupid questions! A grant is basically a contract for services with a foundation or company. You write a proposal and outline who you are, what you want to do and why, and how you will document, measure, and evaluate your success, which is the most important part. And you submit it to a foundation or a corporation, or an individual. The standard rule is that you should have three times as many requests out as you anticipate getting, so you think that for every one grant you get, it's a lot of work!

Rachel Muir: Absolutely. The first step is your idea, and then your strategy and business plan. I've been very happily surprised to see there are a lot of programs to support women-owned businesses, especially early seed stage businesses. I would recommend that you contact the Chamber of Commerce in your city or town and explain your idea. Ask if they can help you out and point you in the right direction. If there's a Women's Chamber of Commerce in your town, that would be an even better call to make. You could also look for national or regional programs out there, too. In Austin, TX we have free classes for women to attend, and work on their business plan, and mentoring. That's a great resource for one-on-one help in your community. I didn't go to those classes, but I know they're out there, and that they're a great thing.

Rachel Muir: I think there is a lot of support for getting girls interested and competent in math and science subjects. We still, as a society, however, have a lot of stereotypes about girls that can keep us from reaching our goals. There are stereotypes that girls are not good at math and science, and stereotypes about women that can be damaging for girls to see. But overall, I do think that people value girls learning about math and science, and realize that that's important, and that girls don't get that. And I think they realize that they need those programs.

Rachel Muir: I know that IBM has an online mentoring program--an eMentoring program So you might try contacting IBM. You can also do a search online for eMentoring. But even better, if you know what field you are interested in, the next step is contacting a woman in that field, and asking her to be your mentor. Maybe it's a woman at school, or a woman at work. It all depends on what field you are interested in.

Rachel Muir: Those camps are held in Austin, TX. You can see more on our web site, www.girlstartcamp.org. We have eight weeks of summer camps. We have mystery camps, robot camps, space camps, archaeology camps, and we even have camps where girls take apart computers, and learn how to build them.

Rachel Muir: We have parent/daughter camps, and the programs that we do in schools are frequently led by volunteers from companies, college students, and, in some cases, by teachers. However, we do not offer adult programs.

Rachel Muir: I would look her straight in the eyes and say, "You can do it. It's fun. You meet other girls. You learn things you never thought possible. You do things you never thought you'd do. The world is bigger than you ever thought it was, and there are so many opportunities in it."

Rachel Muir: Believe in yourself, and you can do anything!