The Background:
After nine years of continuous program in one central city neighborhood in Austin, Texas, the program founder and director has worked with hundreds of girls, from a very wide range of backgrounds, as they have matured into incredibly confident and determined young women.  Beginning as sixth, seventh, and eighth graders, many of them have maintained a connection to the program.  Some have been the first in their families to graduate from high school and many have been the first to enter college.

Now this tested and refined program has been adapted for classroom or after-school use and published as Star Track: A Guide for Stellar Girls.  Tamara Sbelgio, the program founder and director, has written the first three years of the innovative STARS course, developed for The Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders of the Austin Independent School District in Austin, Texas.  This course is an integral part of the school’s model, a model that is sure to set the standard for secondary education for young women.

Incorporated within the STARS course, the Star Track curriculum has adapted many of the most engaging and effective elements of the Morning Star Rising Project.  While keeping much of the tone and variety that have made The Project successful, the Star Track curriculum has added many academic objectives and activities, using the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills and the Wisconsin Youth Leadership Skill Standards Certificate Program objectives as planning aids.

The Underpinning:
Additionally, the psychological/affective goal of development of an internal locus of control is central to the effectiveness of The Project and the Star Track curriculum.  Setting goals, taking responsibility for one’s actions, resisting negative peer pressure, deferring gratification, demonstrating confidence and focus, all of these are attitudes and behaviors associated with maturity.  Just as an external locus of control is an identifying feature of infancy and early childhood, the transition to an internalization of control over one’s decisions and actions identifies the emergence of an adult stance in the world.

The concept of placed-based education, as developed by The Llano Grande Project in Elsa-Edcouch, Texas, has been a central construct for The Morning Star Rising Project.  As defined by The Llano Grande Project, the paradigm proposes ”taking the history, economy, culture, and ecology of a region and using them as both a textbook and a laboratory for learning.”

Of course, in our highly mobile society, the ability of any school or program to foster a strong sense of belonging to a specific community is hampered.  However, if the concept of community is broad as well as specific, and if the experiences of connecting to community are introduced and encouraged in a multi-faceted way, then it is quite possible that a change in the orientation of the individual can become a habit, a moveable mindset.

The Star Track curriculum includes:

• Spiral-bound book with 32 lessons (many for 2 to 3 sessions each):
• Teacher planning pages for each lesson with academic objectives,
• All reproducible handouts,
• Program overview and section introductions,
• Table of contents and bibliography
• All of the above on a CD-ROM
• On-going consulting available

  For purchase information contact:

  Tamara Sbelgio, Executive Director
  Morning Star Rising
  P.O. Box 42035
  Austin, TX 78704
  512-373-6764
  Email