Yep, I'm Proud, Part II

This past week, I was involved with a Leadership Lunch sponsored by the Girl Scouts. It is to this lunch that we on the committee invite women who we consider to be leaders in the community. They take on all shapes, sizes and ages! Of course, they are a diverse group.

This lunch is a launching point for recruiting mentors for Camp CEO, a project where women leaders each mentor one female student in 10th, 11th or 12th grade for just one weekend. There is a financial commitment to participate, too.

Last year was our first year and we had a wonderful weekend with 16 women and 16 girls. We want to replicate or do better this year.

Having a powerful keynote speaker would be crucial to our success.

I convinced Theresa Emrick, one of the members of the committee, to be the main speaker. She has a story that is so perfect for this.

You see, she was a good (A's and B's) student in a small school, when in her senior year she was told by the guidance counselor (who was also the football coach) that her dreams of further education were going to be a waste. He told her that she wasn't smart enough to make the grade. He told her to just marry the football team captain and be done with it.

Theresa obviously didn't follow this professional's advice. She has a Masters degree. She is the Director of Admissions for Nortre Dame Academy, an all girls prep school here in Toledo. She is at this position because she doesn't ever want another young girl to hear such stupid advice.

With this powerful presentation, I have no fear that we will find the 20 women who want to make a difference.

Who in your youth motivated you to reach beyond your comfort zone? And was it done with positive or negative reinforcement?

Ways to Give

In the past week, I've met with several people who when I asked what kind of help they were looking for said, "I want to be mentored by people more successful than I."

One young woman said that the mentoring didn't need to be anything formal, just that she wanted to link with other successful people to watch and learn from them.

Sometimes we get so caught up in figuring out how to give referrals to each other, (and that's not bad) but we forget that many times we have other important "things" to give. Mainly time!

I am so proud of the Certified Networker community of grads here in NW Ohio. You see, we have two versions of the course being taught here. One is what I call the "public" class where the students are business people. The other version is the accredited class because Davis College has decided that the CN course should be part of their curriculum. The Davis College student is typically NOT the traditional student. Most are a little older and most work full-time along with going to school. Still they don't have as much business experience as the "version 1" students.

One challenge has been that the Davis Students have not taken advantage of the power of the CN community, especially after they are done with the course. We've tried several ways to make better connections, but just haven't hit upon the right combination. Enter Linda Kuns, State Farm Insurance representative and CN grad. She developed a mentoring program, organized the mentors and along with Nick Nigro, Davis College placement director and CN grad/trainer, connected the version 1 grads with the current Davis students. I think we are going to have better success this time, helping to mentor these students. I'll let you know how it goes.

All fourteen mentors are busy. Probably they really don't have the extra time needed for this project. But they are willing to carve a little extra out so they can give that precious commodity -- their time. I'd like to thank Tracee Swank, Megan Coyle Stamos, Sue Greene (2 students), Linda Kuns, Kay Somoyge, Julie Cantu, Angela Crosby, Mike Williams, Joe Francis, Fred Altvater, Anita Dotson, Allison Adkins, Cheryl Engfer and Barb Mullholand for being willing to take that extra time. You are what our community is all about.

What do you give in addition to referrals?

Camping for Big Girls

Camp CEO! Sounds like a high level boot camp, right?

Actually, part of that desciption is right, the high level part.

Boot camp, NO!

Last weekend, I spent a two glorious, blue sky days at Camp Libby, a Girl Scout camp in Defiance, Ohio. Talk about beautiful. The camp buildings are all painted a very earthy dark brown, and the style of architecture fits in with all the mature trees.

But what is Camp CEO?

This is a new Girl Scout project. We have brought it to Ohio. We means, my friend, Lori Cannon, who gets me into this kind of stuff. She introduced me to Angela Tennaro, the program director for the Girl Scouts of Maumee Valley Council in this area. We also brought on Meredith Delman, Nicole Minadeo and Theresa Emrick to put this project together.

16 women were paired with 16 young women in grades 10-12. The whole weekend was devoted to mentoring with a focus on business. Sometimes the girls mentored us, and sometimes we gave in return.

My mentee (or protege as they are sometimes called) was Tara Patel, a junior at Sylvania Northview High School. I feel very lucky to have made this acquaintance. She is smart, energetic, a take charge kind of gal, petite, and beautiful. She writes for her school newspaper and shared that she had written an editorial asking why the school encourages being environmentally conscious, including having classes in the topic, when in fact, the school did not recycle. She said that as a result of the editorial the school is starting to recycle paper.

More about Camp CEO tomorrow. But in the meantime, what are your mentoring experiences?