SuccessSHE: Mentoring program empowers girls to be their best selves

CEDAR RAPIDS - SuccessSHE aims to build leaders by building up girls.

The grass roots organization offers programs to empower them by building the confidence to do what they want, be who they are and explore entrepreneurial and leadership roles in their communities.

According to the SuccessSHE website, 'The ultimate goal is to create a community where girls are inspired to overcome the barriers they put on themselves.”

The mentoring program, formally known as Success to the Power of SHE, involves nearly 30 high school students and their teacher/mentor through IowaBIG, a project-based high school experience offered by the Cedar Rapids and College Community school districts.

As with all success stories, it all began with an idea that snowballed. When founder Kinzie Farmer of Cedar Rapids entered IowaBIG in the fall of 2013, her project teacher asked her what she hated. She said it was the way 'girls follow their boyfriends around in the hallways like puppy dogs.”

Digging deeper, she decided the core problems are rooted in the expectations placed on girls, the lack of encouragement to do what they wanted, and 'the injustice they do to themselves.”

She formed a SuccessSHE team, and launched a conference in May 2014 to inspire young women, which drew 70 girls, 80 adults and six speakers.

The grass-roots effort has grown steadily, encompassing these subgroups:

' #GussyDown

social media campaign, challenging young women to go without makeup for five days in February and post selfies of their natural face on Twitter. It drew more than 500 participants from across the United States and five foreign countries.

' Minnow Tank

, a community partnership encouraging teams of middle school girls, led by a high school mentor, to develop and seek funding for outreach programs for underserved populations.

' 'Young Leaders”

afternoon program created for Tuesday's Iowa Women Lead Change conference at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Cedar Rapids Convention Complex downtown.

SuccessSHE leader/teacher Nate Pruett, 47, of Cedar Rapids, sees the need for his team to engage girls during middle school.

'There's just something at that age, where girls feel that they have to conform to some sort of societal role, and I want to break that,” he said, adding that as the father of an 8-year-old girl, part of his motivation is selfish. 'But sometimes that's the best place to start, when you want to see change.”

His team benefits as well, growing 'in their belief that they can create some level of change, whether that's through #GussyDown, where they doubled the number of participants this year, or Minnow Tank. 'Their excitement for them remembering their middle school years and saying, ‘I want to make sure girls can recognize that they can do things. They have the power to change. Their ideas are valuable.'

'I've appreciated the growth in their insight to what it is they are actually trying to do through SuccessSHE, plus (building) myriad important skills: communication, networking with the community, confidence,” he said.

SuccessSHE President Amelia Rodriguez, 18, a senior at Cedar Rapids Washington High School, agrees.

'It's really important to get women more involved in the community and business world,” she said. 'I think it's really cool, the experience we get to have as high schoolers at IowaBIG, and I think that's really important to be able to spread that to other people who don't have the opportunity. And especially starting that young. If you get, for example, these middle schoolers in Minnow Tank, if we get them excited about making changes in their community and improving it at a young age, I think it will really improve their future.”

SuccessSHE has improved her future.

'I've learned quite a few things: leadership skills, for sure,” Rodriguez said. 'Kinsey Farmer was an incredible leader and has taught me a lot. She really helped me with my delegation and my organizational skills, and so has Maxine Webb, our business partner for Minnow Tank.

'Just in general, it has really helped me with my procrastination and motivation, because when you're working with a team, you cannot slack. If you procrastinate on your stuff, it hinders other people's ability to get their work done, so it's really beneficial for getting prepared for college,” Rodriguez said.

It's also shown her that she doesn't need to go out of state for college, that so many opportunities exist in the Corridor, she's decided to study enterprise leadership at the University of Iowa.

That's music to Pruett's ears. After so many years of hearing students say they couldn't wait to leave the area, he said: 'It's nice to see the youthful exuberance for Cedar Rapids.”

SuccessSHE is a perfect partner fit for Girl Scouts, said Webb, development manager for the Girl Scouts of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois.

'It embodies everything that Girl Scouts is about,” she said. 'It's girl-led, and it's all about empowering girls to be their best selves, and that's what Girl Scouts is really all about. We're just a name. Our overall mission is to build girls to become the best leaders they can be, to support our communities.”

Minnow Tank

Recent Minnow Tank participants from Franklin Middle School in Cedar Rapids were thrilled to connect with SuccessSHE, meeting with its high school mentors.

'I like that there's a group specifically for girls so they can get involved in the community and make really good ideas to help their community,” said sixth-grader Taygen Goodwin, 12, of Cedar Rapids. 'We learned a lot about each other and why it's so important to help the community.”

Team member Katie Conyers, 12, also in sixth grade, thought the program 'would be fun, because all of us have good ideas, and it's a way to get our ideas out there.”

Their Minnow Tank group has formed Dance Iowa, to offer free dance lessons for young boys and girls who might not otherwise be able to afford them.

'A lot of the kids in the community don't have enough money for dance and a lot of people like to dance,” said Emma Marple, 11, a Franklin sixth-grader. 'We wanted people who wanted to dance to be able to dance - if they have enough money or not. We definitely wanted to make the dance process free, no matter what.”

Mount Mercy University President Laurie Hamen served as emcee for the April 7 Minnow Tank event at Mount Mercy's Graduate Center in northeast Cedar Rapids. Five teams of metro-area middle school girls sought a portion of $2,500 from five community investors, to support projects ranging from arts instruction to building a greenhouse or providing life skills classes. All will be led by adults in partnership with the SuccessSHE teams.

'Just having an opportunity for girls to be able to make their presentation, to make their community better - it's all things that will prepare them to be great citizens in the future,” Hamen said.

'Mentoring younger girls, you get a double benefit: you've got middle school girls who are looking up to these young women who are really trying to prepare them for community things. That's the kind of mentor you want between junior high and senior high. I've appreciated SuccessSHE because they do such great work.”

'The value of the program is, there is a program, and there's an opportunity for young women to be able to say, ‘I like this - this is a way for me to express myself,'” said Minnow Tank investor Mary Quass of Mount Vernon, president and CEO of NRG Media, based in Cedar Rapids. 'You can't have watched this group of young women and not be overwhelmed.”

At a Glance

' SuccessSHE: Successshe.org

' IWLC Young Leaders: Noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday (4/26), DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Cedar Rapids Convention Complex, 350 First Ave. NE, Cedar Rapids; $15, register at Successshe.org/iwlc-young-leaders