Assistant to the President, Tiffany Casimere and Financial Aid Specialist Antoinette Troupe-Gardner, brought the “Girl Yes You Can” program to Solano March of last year. The program connects women students with resources to balance personal life and school, creating a safe space for students to be able to have an open dialogue with the issues they face. With Superintendent-President Dr Kellie Butler landing an agreement for the program to receive funding to start holding meetings and activities in January of 2025.

When Casimere experienced a personal crisis herself, she looked around and realized that if it wasn’t for her family’s support, she would have been homeless on the streets and she didn’t want other women to go through that.

“If you are in a crisis you are most likely to talk to other ladies to find support and comfort, and you’re more likely to stay because they will find assistance that you need” Casimere stated.

The activities and discussions are always something that’s thought provoking, something that’s supportive in nature, and also gives women an opportunity to be able to express themselves freely without being judged.

“A lot of times Tiffany comes up with the topic on behalf of the group as a whole and typically it always works out” Antoineete stated.

Members are appointing students with different programs and services that are available to them on campus, so that women on campus know the resources are available to students.

Tiffany Casimere and Antoinette Troupe-Gardner provide “Girl Yes You Can” as a resource in the local community as an outside resource when it comes to providing resources to students, they are always able to have a more supportive journey in education so they can graduate and transfer on time. Casimere will come up with topics to discuss, but will let the students take over the discussion. They like the students to have an input about what it is in their hearts and minds that they want to talk about.

According to the “College Factual Study”, data shows that for the last few years, women have attended Solano Community College more compared to men, with the rate of enrollment showing 41.7% of men and 58.3% for women. Approximately there are 5,554 female students and 3,697 of male students at Solano.

Solano College now has 100 women attending the “Girl Yes You Can” program on a regular basis.

Although “Girl Yes You Can” was initially created as a non-profit organization in 2007, Caismere didn’t bring the program to Solano until last year. Rather, it was developed outside of the collegiate area because the college space was more limited for women outside. However, Caismere saw how the college needed the same services at Solano.

Casimere experienced the “Girl Yes You Can” program in the past, resulting from her forming a chapter at Solano Community. The program focuses on life both outside and inside of Solano College, working with women and students to improve the quality of life. They would end up working with Superintendent-President Dr. Kellie Butler about creating this program to help students.

“Girl Yes You Can” aims to help women with their everyday problems such as school work, their mental health, and their emotional health. The program is to help students by pointing them in the right path so students can transfer and obtain a degree for their academic future. Casimere wanted to encourage other women to join so they have a community to rely on when they graduate.

The program goal is to be more active for Vallejo and for Vacaville campuses so the program will be extending to other colleges and proposing to other universities to start groups there as well. To find more information, you can find it at their website “Girl Yes You Can”. Members from the program are also working on a “Girl, Yes You Can” circle for faculty and staff.

“Girl Yes You Can” is a “holistic program for women on campus that gives additional support” to students Troupe-Gardner stated.

“It gives them a sense of sisterhood and community”

The club meets every Thursday at the Fairfield Main Campus at 2-3:30 pm in Denis Honeychurch 600 Building. The next meeting is Jan 22nd 2026.