AUNT FLOW AND OTHER INITIATIVES

How The Coleman Group continues to give women the resources to make positive change in the world

Cheshire Academy students are more than just learners. They’re global-minded thinkers. They’re driven. They’re citizens. They’re supportive. They’re starters.

And just as important, they’re solvers. Just ask Capri Frissora ’25, and the rest of The Coleman Group members, who identified a problem on campus and worked together to find a solution.

During her 9th grade year, Frissora was encouraged by faculty and classmates to join The Coleman Group. While hesitant, she said she wanted to be part of a group that “made a difference in my community and makes improvements and changes that benefit women on campus.”

At her first meeting, Frissora and her peers were asked if they saw anything around campus that they wished to change. “I immediately thought of the lack of menstrual care product dispensers (on campus). More and more companies and schools are implementing them in their facilities, and I wanted CA to be part of that change.”

One year later and wiser, Frissora revisited the issue with The Coleman Group. Together, they began researching ways to provide menstrual care products to girls on campus throughout the school day. They discovered Aunt Flow, a woman-led organization that has worked with hundreds of businesses and schools across North America — Google, Netflix, and Princeton University, to name a few — to provide free menstrual care products on site. Aunt Flow sells dispensers that provide pads and tampons. Credit to Colleen Altenburger, science teacher and associate dean of students, for connecting The Coleman Group to Aunt Flow.

“After a successful pitch to Ms. Anderson, we were told that if we could raise a certain amount of money, Cheshire Academy would more than double it. This is when the project that had been a dream became a reality, and I realized that this was going to happen,” Frissora said.

Through fundraising efforts on campus, the group collected approximately $800, which was applied toward the purchase of four dispensers. Their most significant fundraiser was a snack table at the student versus faculty basketball game prior to winter recess.

Kai Scwhartz ’23 was surprised at how supportive the community was, with one faculty member even donating $100 toward their cause.

“I was so happy that people were willing to support this project with their hard-earned money,” they said. “Not only direct members of the community, but family members and other supporters were critical to making this happen.”

“Capri saw an issue on campus and she worked hard to fix it,” Molly Golden ’24 said. “She was the backbone of this project and these dispensers around campus are a reflection of her hard work and commitment to CA to make it a better place.”

The dispensers were installed in the Arthur Sheriff Field House, John J. White ’38 Science & Technology Center, and the Library & Humanities Building. For The Coleman Group members, seeing the dispensers up and operational elicited pride, and a drive to continue their great work.

“I’m proud of what we have accomplished and what we will accomplish in the future,” Schwartz said. “Though I am graduating this year, I would love for the group to continue this project until every bathroom has a dispenser. Although women’s rights have come a long way since the beginning of the feminist movement, there are still gaps, one of which is equity and accessibility in menstrual care.”

Looking Forward

Since its start in 2004, The Coleman Group was led by former senior master and faculty member Karen Smith. After her retirement in 2021, Smith passed the reins to Elisa Laudati ’05, director of the Roxbury Academic Support Program and former group member.

“I was one of the first classes of The Coleman Group when it started,” Laudati said, reflecting on her time as a member. “The thing I remember most was just being a community of women, and that was really wonderful.”

Now as an advisor, Laudati follows The Coleman Group’s mission statement, which reads in part that the group “aims to empower young female, female identifying, and gender nonconforming Cheshire Academy students by developing their voice, their leadership skills, and their knowledge of topics that influence their gender.”

This year, Laudati was joined by Madeleine Bergstrom, director of college counseling. Bergstrom has watched the group grow over her eight years at CA, and believes they are in a position of opportunity to celebrate and empower young women on campus.

“We talk about how we’re driven by female leaders here and globally what that means to our students, especially students who come from different backgrounds,” Bergstrom said. “It’s really invigorating and really exciting to see folks take initiative.”

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

Celebrated on March 8, The Coleman Group organized a campuswide recognition for International Women’s Day, a global day recognizing the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women around the world. In recent years, The Coleman Group has hosted alumnae and organized workshops to empower women on campus.

This year, The Coleman Group spread awareness about the day, its history, goals, and this year’s theme of #EmbraceEquity. The group took the opportunity to share information during morning meetings, held activities about gender inequity, and organizations that support women were shared during advisory sessions.

The Coleman Group members also sponsored THK Global Consulting and the Black Girls Achieve Summit, the latter of which was a daylong leadership and networking conference attended by five CA students and Laudati. This was the first year the summit was held, convening 150 Black girls in middle school, high school, and colleges in the state of Connecticut. Not only did the summit serve as a networking opportunity, but aimed to inspire and uplift girls as they learned from likeminded individuals in a space the students may otherwise not have.

A panel and networking opportunity for female leaders and business owners from various fields was also held on May 9.