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“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
— Maya Angelou
Throughout this 35th anniversary year, Chrysalis has applied the theme “The Chrysalis Effect” as our way of expressing the transformation of girls and women we inspire through our work. Louise Noun named the foundation “Chrysalis” for the symbolism of the emerging butterfly and its representation of growth and development.
In 2023, we were thrilled when longtime Chrysalis friend, Dan Troxell, created The Butterfly Effect, a curriculum to educate girls in Chrysalis After-School programs about the art, science, and history of photography. Using his over 50 years of experience, he developed a curriculum to provide both a learning experience and hands-on opportunity for girls to explore their own creative expression through the camera lens.
Troxell provides each Chrysalis After-School participant with a camera and teaches the principles and mechanics of film-based photography. Lessons range from loading and developing film to the adjustments, framing, and settings for several types of scenes including wildlife, outdoor, and portrait. During the sessions Troxell invites an award-winning female photographer to share her work, her firsthand experiences, and her career path.
Specific to the goals of Chrysalis After-School, the program focuses on resilience by helping girls step outside the familiar, building self-esteem through learning and practicing new and different skills, self-expression by photographing the world around them, and working with technology by using a film-based camera and digital photography.
In creating this learning experience, Troxell shares the origin of its title by noting “The Butterfly Effect – where a gentle breeze can inspire and lift the wings of the curious.” In addition to developing multiple skills, this educational experience has broadened girls’ knowledge of photography as an art form well beyond cellphone selfies, exposing each one to a new way of seeing their world.
Like The Butterfly Effect, we believe The Chrysalis Effect supports the way that small changes can stimulate momentous change. At Chrysalis, we know that improving one girl’s life can drastically – and positively – transform her future…and the future for
us all.
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