The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
A chance ‘to be heard’
GIFTS aids girls with behavioral issues
MIDDLETOWN — A small and little-known peer and mentorship program for young ladies of color has been quietly transforming the lives of high school students determined to be at risk of failure due to behavioral or academic issues.
For a decade, three Middletown High School graduates have been leading Girls Inspired for Total Success, or GIFTS, after thenprincipal Bob Fontaine asked for help recruiting women interested in helping incoming first-year students with issues impeding their education.
Founder Sue Owens took action, reaching out to Cheryllynn McRae White and Beverly Lawrence. All three, who graduated from Middletown High, have gone on to become strong role models for the more than 200 young women who have graduated from the program.
Although membership is predominately girls of color, White said the group includes young women of all races, as well as some high achievers who volunteer with GIFTS and serve as peer mentors.
“We start the year with girls who may be having difficulty transitioning into high school, those with low self-esteem, and even some who identify as enemies,” White said. “We spend time creating profiles on each of the girls, allowing us to address their needs
one on one.”
Each Friday, for an hour following the student’s lunch, the group discusses a range of topics, among them social media, education, self-esteem, postgraduation plans and respect. This year, about 30 girls are part of GIFTS.
Assistant Principal Dawn Brooks has been at the high school for just 90 days. The Middletown High School grad came from Woodrow Wilson Middle School, where she was a Spanish teacher, so many of the students know her.
When she first learned of the program, she was impressed by the name and how empowering the concept is, she said.
“We have women of color in our community who are doing something positive for young women of color in the schools,” Brooks said.
The term “minority” is a misnomer these days, she added.
“Our students of color are hardly a minority anymore,” she said. “They’re just about half. If you look at a picture of the adults in the building who are serving them every day, that picture does not reflect the student body.”
The woman who made a difference in her life, she said — and set her on the path to becoming a teacher and the woman she is today — was the late Christine LaRosa, a former Spanish teacher who died suddenly in 2007. The street the school is located on is named after her.
Brooks had one other person of color to look up to as a student: high school guidance counselor Les Saunders, whom she now works alongside.
“That was really it,” she said.
Brooks had advantages many of these young women are not afforded.
“Luckily, my mom was on the Board of Education and very much involved in the community,” she said. “She had access to connect me with role models who looked like me. If I did not have that mother, I would have had to rely on school, and those role models would not have been as easily accessible.”
But having good role models is working, she said.
When the girls first file into class, White will ask them how their week has gone as a way to open up the conversation.
“You can say anything, because anything that is said in here doesn’t leave this room,” Angelina Rodriguez, 14, said.
“What we’ve learned is most of the girls just want to be heard,” White said.
And there are no limits to the conversation, Gabby Gatlin, 14, said.
Both were placed in the group, but soon after had the choice to leave. Each of the young women chose to stay.
“You don’t just fool around. You come here and learn things that are useful to your life,” Angelina said.
Not many participants in the group have great relationships with their parents, Gabby said.
“If I don’t get it from my siblings, or at home, I should have a support system outside of my house if I don’t have it inside,” Gabby said. “If I have no one to talk to and I feel alone, I know I have people to talk to who really care.”
Angelina said she was so angry at everything and had a really difficult time when she first came to the high school.
“One thing I like is hearing everybody out, especially knowing what everybody’s gone through,” she said. “I definitely changed my mindset, because when I came in here, at the beginning of the year, I was fighting. Now, I have Ms. White to tell.”
Before she enrolled in GIFTS, Gabby had failing grades.
“I wasn’t listening to anybody. I wasn’t listening to my parents,” she said.
That soon changed, once she felt safe enough to open up.
“The love that they give you is refreshing. When I’m out of this program, I feel like I’m alone and nobody cares for me, but you come in this room and you feel so much love,” said Gabby, who said she feels more comfortable talking to Owens, White and Lawrence because they’ve had similar experiences.
White’s mother was a single mom of five kids.
“She made me tough. I was born and raised in Brooklyn. I had to be tough. I had six brothers. I’m the only girl. I’m giving them the real world,” White said.
Countless girls from the group have gone on to attend college, entered trade school, joined the military and secured the career of their choice, White said. In many instances, these GIFTS students become mentors themselves.
“In the beginning, it was more a call of action from the community. (The rumor was) there was a ‘girls gang,’ but obviously it wasn’t. It was just misunderstood girls who were fighting and they needed guidance,” Lawrence said.
One of her goals at Middletown High School is to create access for students, she said.
“That’s why, as an administrator, it means a lot to me to be here, so a lot of students who see me, and look like me, could see themselves in a role like mine — or a similar one,” Lawrence said.
“The bottom line is, although they have problems, they’re still good girls, and they just need somebody to support them and help them deal with the problem. All three of us could be doing something else, but this is something that we love,” Owens said.