A program started by three students at Shaler Area High School to raise awareness among young women about the high risk of sexual assault will be getting national attention this summer.

Seniors Jackie Betz, Megan Neuf and Erin Drischler, who created M-Powerment, have been selected to represent the Pittsburgh region at the National Jefferson Awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., in June.

They have been nominated for the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Award for public service, one of the nation's highest awards that honors humanitarian work.

The girls were among eight winners locally for the 2007 Jefferson Award of Public Service, which is considered the Nobel Prize of volunteering. The panel that selected the Jefferson Award winners nominated the girls for the national award.

They will attend national ceremonies June 16-18, including a U.S. Senate reception and gala dinner.

The girls had been working to raise awareness of all kinds of social injustices as members of the Shaler Area High School's Youth Advocacy League. But when they learned that, according to national statistics, one in four girls will be raped or sexually assaulted by Thanksgiving break of their freshman year in college, they were moved to take action.

They won a $2,500 grant from the Allegheny County Girls as Grantmakers program as seed money to co-found M-Powerment, which has worked to spread awareness to young women through programs and projects.

After holding an assembly on sexual harassment at their high school in October 2006 that drew nearly 200 girls, they went on to host an all-women's conference at Chatham University that drew 60 girls from neighboring public, private and city schools.

As part of this conference, Ms. Drischler of Shaler had obtained a $500 grant from her school's parent association to purchase safety whistles for senior girls before the prom. These were distributed with safety purses from the Pittsburgh Action Against Rape.

The girls, who are set to graduate in June, put in about 40 hours a month volunteering for M-Powerment. But they've also recruited several underclassmen into the group to ensure it continues after they've graduated.

The local Jefferson Awards program is sponsored by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments.