Girls filled McLevy Green alongside mentors, educators, community leaders and families for the annual 100GirlsLeading Inc. summit earlier this month — a day of connection and inspiration aimed at empowering the next generation of female leaders in Bridgeport and beyond.

The free event featured speakers, interactive activities, information about community resources and networking opportunities designed to help girls build confidence and leadership skills while connecting with women who have forged successful paths.

For Bobbi Brown, founder of 100GirlsLeading, the summit is an extension of work that has been happening for years.

“We’ve always wanted to make sure that we’re elevating opportunities for our youth across Connecticut,” Brown said. “While we have the girls here, I think it’s best that the Bridgeport community and the surrounding areas know there’s this amazing program going on.”

The organization serves more than 100 girls, and it’s built around four pillar goals: to educate, advocate, mentor and empower. It started in schools and expanded more widely, allowing the organization to extend its services to girls from greater Bridgeport and surrounding communities.

Throughout the afternoon, girls moved between activity stations, listened to speakers and spoke with mentors and community partners who volunteered their time to invest in the next generation.

Lashay Hall, lead mentor for the organization’s high school program, said exposure to a range of professional possibilities is a key goal of the summit.

“It’s very important to expose girls to things like this in the area,” Hall said. “We have so many women out here about to really feed into these girls, pour into these girls and teach them about different careers.”

The women participating in the summit represented a wide range of professions and backgrounds, offering girls a chance to see multiple pathways to success.

“The women that we’re having come speak today, they come from all different facets of life, all different types of careers, and they’re going to empower our girls,” Hall said.

At one table, art instructor and children’s book illustrator Gabrielle Fludd guided girls through a creative activity in which they painted wooden butterflies and contributed to a community mosaic made from recycled bottle caps.

Fludd intentionally chose butterflies as the centerpiece of the activity.

“A butterfly signifies growth and transformation, and I thought that would be perfect for the girls that are in middle school and high school as they transition into a woman,” she said.

The symbolism reflected the broader mission of the summit: helping girls discover who they are and who they can become.

For some participants, the impact was almost immediately clear.

Corinne Fludd, an 18-year-old student at Central Magnet School and Gabrielle’s daughter, attended the summit as a mentor. Years earlier, she had been on of the girls participating.

“I would go to these events as a child, and so I’m excited to be behind the table this time,” she said.

She credits mentors in her own life with helping shape her future.

“Originally I didn’t decide to go to college,” she said. “My English teacher, Ms. Blackwell, pulled me aside after class and said, ‘I think you should higher your education. I think you should reach for the stars.’ She became a mentor to me.”

Now preparing to attend college in the fall and pursue a career as an art teacher, Corinne hopes younger girls understand that their goals are achievable.

“I just needed guidance in my life,” she said. “My mother is a great guidance in my life. My teachers. I feel like that’s important for other people to show that your path will be very different, but your goals are achievable.”

That message resonated with many of the girls attending.

Kamrynn Allen, an eighth grader at High Horizons Magnet School, said, “I think it’s really important because just being around other girls like this really just shows empowerment, what it really means to be a girl and to be around other girls.”

For ninth grader Jennellys Rivera of Kolbe Cathedral High School, the event was about building relationships.

Asked what she hoped participants would take away from the day, Rivera said, “To see all the girls get together and become more friends.”

Her classmate, Samara Wallace, shared a similar perspective.

“I’m excited to see everybody come together, all the girls,” Wallace said. “I just want them to all get an opportunity to enjoy this moment.”

Iliana Sanchez, an 11th-grade student, said the summit helps create support systems among girls who might not otherwise meet.

“I think this event brings all the girls together, especially building bonds with people that we might not have known,” Sanchez said. “Just bringing us all together to have somebody to rely on.”

For Treasure Ibow, the value of those connections is personal.

“Connections. I feel like it’s very important to make connections,” Ibow said. “That’s how I got here today.”

Ibow said relationships she built through youth programs helped her secure a scholarship that will help pay for college.

“You never know who could help you out in the future,” she said. “Now I’m going to college.”

Even the youngest attendees understood the event’s purpose.

Seven-year-old Zuri Rhodes of St. Ann Academy said she was excited about “the food, the tables,” but when asked what she wanted people to learn from the summit, her answer carried a larger message.

“I want them to learn that girls are important,” Rhodes said.

For Hall, that message is exactly why events like the summit matter.

“We just want the girls to see them in us, us in them,” she said.

As hundreds of girls spent the day learning, creating, networking and encouraging one another, the summit offered more than activities and speakers. It provided something many young people need but don’t always have access to: a room full of women willing to invest in their future.

And for many of the girls gathered at McLevy Green, that investment may be the first step toward becoming one of Bridgeport’s next leaders.