New York, NY – Girls Action Network, Inc. is pleased to announce and salute its 2016 GAN Scholars as new cohorts to the GAN Summer Scholastic Enrichment Program (SSEP): Isabel Santiuste (Bronx, New York), Erica Fuller (Gray, Georgia) and Hailey Jefferson (Suwanee, Georgia). GAN Scholars Fuller and Jefferson were selected to attend the Wesleyan College Spectacles Summer Program. The Spectacles program is a math and science camp for middle-school girls sponsored by Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. GAN Scholar Santiuste was selected to attend the month-long Smith College Summer Science & Engineering Program in Northampton, MA where she will receive the unique opportunity to participate in innovative curricula in astronomy, biology, biochemistry, chemistry, computer science, engineering, physics and a young women’s health education initiative. The scholarship funding for the 2016 GAN Scholars was made possible by Girls Action Network, Inc., Smith College and Wesleyan College. GAN is a grassroots organization focused on social transformation to educate and empower girls ages 11 and up, with special emphasis on those from underserved communities. At the core of GAN’s mission, the realization is that girls commonly are directed towards traditional careers, away from, for example, science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Reaching beyond single mentoring, GAN Founder, Elisa Basnight Layne of Capitol Heights, Maryland comments that “GAN strives to create a myriad of innovative programs and experiences, some in partnership with other not-for-profits and organizations, designed to show girls their expansive career and educational choices at a time when, research consistently shows that “education for girls is one of the most effective – if not the most effective investment a nation can make to improve the health and prosperity of present and future generations.'” For more information, please visit www.girlsactionnetwork.org.