“I am honored to share a space I wish I had, and that I needed, when I was their age,” shared a mentor of young girls.
According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, a mentor is defined as “a trusted counselor or guide.” Having a mentor can be meaningful for many people across all stages of life, especially for women and girls.
Positive Outcomes of Mentoring Young Girls
For young girls, a mentor can offer a safe space to express feelings and share experiences. Adult mentors act as a sounding board offering a fresh perspective and means of support as girls face the challenges of growing up. Youth.gov reports that youth who are mentored have:
Mentors Experience Benefits Too
Mentees are not the only ones who see growth from mentorship. Mentors also reap the benefits from these relationships. Mentoring is about much more than “feeling good about giving back.” The special relationships fostered by women mentoring other women or young girls may help close the gender gap in the classroom and the workplace by helping both the mentor and mentee feel empowered. According to Guider.com mentors’ gain:
Greater Boston Organizations That Empower Through Mentoring
Organizations such as Women’s Foundation of Boston (WFBoston) grantee partners Big Sister Association of Greater Boston and Strong Women Strong Girls, have built various programs encouraging female mentorship and bringing together women and girls to champion each other as they achieve their goals.
Big Sister Programs Enrich Lives
The mission of Big Sister Association of Greater Boston (BSAGB) is to ignite girls’ passion and power to succeed through positive mentoring relationships with women and enrichment programs that support girls’ healthy development. WFBoston grants help fund BSAGB’s:
- Big for a Day program: where girls awaiting a long-term Big Sister match engage in enrichment activities in areas such as health and fitness, STEM, civic engagement, career and education, and the arts with a volunteer for the day. This initiative brings in new volunteers, sparks corporate interest, and increases the number of girls served by the organization.
- Big Sister’s New Girls Network (NGN): brings together professional women leaders from the corporate, non-profit, and public sector, as mentors, with young women who are currently volunteer Big Sisters, as mentees.
- Our Big Futures (OBF): provides mentees, age 14 – 24, with intensive coaching for college counseling, financial literacy efforts, and access to curated internships.
Big Sister Boston’s Impact
Big for a Day, New Girls Network, and Our Big Futures allow BSAGB to reach more girls and engage their volunteer Big Sisters in a meaningful way. Participants in the NGN program saw results that created positive change in their lives.
“I love my mentor! She is honest, warm, and thoughtful. During every conversation she is only focused on me, without any personal bias or agenda. She’s always in my corner. With her help, I’ve learned how to be a smarter communicator, develop my strategic thinking skills, and to advocate for myself. Even though this is the end of our official New Girls Network relationship, we have no intention of stopping our mentoring relationship!” -New Girls Network Participant
As a result of conversations with their NGN mentors, 77% of the mentees said their NGN mentor helped them navigate their career and/or personal goals, and mentees reported they experienced the following changes in their careers:
- 33% started a new job
- 33% proposed and/or started a new project
- 11% bought a home
Strong Women, Strong Girl’s Unique Multi-Generational Approach
WFBoston grantee partner, Strong Women, Strong Girls (SWSG) empowers girls and women across Greater Boston to realize their inner strength and pursue dreams. Their multi-generational group mentoring model helps girls in 3rd-5th grade build supportive relationships with women from area universities through the Core Mentoring Program. College women mentors deliver a research-based, skill building curriculum built on the stories of fulfilled and successful women role models. These college-aged role models also receive mentorship and guidance from professional women in the community, through the Strong Leaders Program.
SWSG’s Expansion to Communities with Critical Needs
Currently, SWSG works in over 17 Boston neighborhoods, supporting over 40 schools through a partnership with seven Boston-area universities. A recent WFBoston three-year grant is funding an expansion of the Core Mentoring Program in Gateway Cities north of Boston. This program helps girls practice skills like leadership, teamwork, and critical thinking while gaining exposure to academic and career paths through weekly sessions provided by their college-age mentors. The Strong Leader Program invests in the next generation of female leaders through one-one-one and group mentoring sessions with career development opportunities.
“My experience with SWSG as a mentor has been a stable, grounding, and hopeful part of my week where I get to share time with the girls and create a space where they have permission to feel confident. It has also been healing for me to remember women who were socialized or traumatized when told we weren’t enough- these girls help me remember my loudness and creativity. I am honored to share a space I wish I had, and that I needed when I was their age.” ~ College Mentor
Guiding Others Changes Lives
The experiences of mentors and mentees at organizations like SWSG and Big Sister Boston show the positive power that can come from such guiding relationships. The significance of women acting as role models and advisers to young girls and each other cannot be overstated. The experiences of the participants in these mentoring programs demonstrates that when women and girls invest in each other, lives can change.
Support Women and Girl Driven Organizations
To support organizations like Big Sister Boston or Strong Women, Strong Girls, who are mission-driven nonprofits empowering women and girls, donate to the Women’s Foundation of Boston (WFBoston) today. WFBoston economically empowers Greater Boston women and girls through the creation and funding of high impact leadership and economic programs in partnership with nonprofits serving solely women and girls. The Foundation is a volunteer-driven organization, so 100% of your donation directly supports women and girls. Change someone’s life today by Donating Now!
Laurie H. Glimcher, MD, was named President and CEO of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 2016. She is also Director of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and the Richard and Susan Smith Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Previously, she was the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean and Professor of Medicine of Weill Cornell Medicine and Provost for Medical Affairs of Cornell University. Dr. Glimcher is a distinguished immunologist, widely renowned for her work in one of the most promising areas of cancer research.
Linda Henry is the CEO of the Boston Globe Media Partners. She is a co-founder of HUBweek, a civic collaboration between the Boston Globe, Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital, and MIT that explores the future being built at the intersection of art, science and technology. Linda is also an early-stage impact investor, an Emmy-Award winning television producer with two shows currently airing, and a community activist. She serves as a director of the Red Sox Foundation, is a trustee of the Liverpool Football Club Foundation, chair of the Boston Globe Foundation, and chairman of the John W. Henry Family Foundation. In addition, she is a founder of the Boston Public Market, serves on the advisory board of MassChallenge, and is on the board of the Engine at MIT. She earned a BS from Babson College and her MS from MIT.
Bekah Salwasser joined the Red Sox Foundation as the Executive Director in January of 2018. She earned her B.A. in Psychology from Brown University and has extensive experience in philanthropy and both professional and semi-professional sports. After four years working as Community Relations Director for the Boston Celtics, Bekah went on to lead Scholar Athletes as its Executive Director, a program that supports public high school athletes with both their athletic and academic achievements. Earlier in her career, Bekah served as a professional soccer player for the Boston Breakers and as Executive Director of the Charlestown Lacrosse and Learning Center.
Kimberly Fay Boucher is a business executive who has driven high performance organizations in technology, consumer products and social enterprise/nonprofit industries over the past 25 years. She is currently the Technology Commercialization Business Leader for the CTO at Analog Devices, where she is responsible for driving new technologies from incubation stages to successful businesses. Kim is also a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where she teaches Disciplined Entrepreneurship in the Martin Trust Center. She holds a BS in Management Industrial Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is a NCAA Academic All-American Women’s Basketball player and has been inducted into the WPI Hall of Fame.
Ami Kuan Danoff (Co-Founder and CFO) is a private investor and the trustee of a foundation. She is a Harvard Quantum Founder and a member of the Harvard FAS Dean’s Council. Ami earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in Visual and Environmental Studies and holds a dual master’s degree in Applied Economics and International Finance from the Sloan School of Management at MIT. She was a portfolio manager in global equities at Putnam Investments and co-manager of the Putnam International New Opportunities Fund, and also worked as an international equities analyst at Fidelity Investments.
Christina Heenan Suh holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania in English and Marketing and a master’s from Columbia University. A former management consultant, her work focused on strategy and implementation projects for Fortune 100 clients. She was also an account executive at Hill+Knowlton (WPP) marketing consumer packaged goods. As an Executive Board Member of the Brookline Education Foundation, which funds professional development in the Brookline Public Schools, Christina led their Grant and Oversight Committees. She currently sits on the board of the Brookline Library Foundation and teaches ESL at Rosie’s Place in Boston.
Christina Gordon (Co-Founder and CEO) holds a dual master’s degree in International Finance and Applied Economics from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Boston University and also studied for a joint master’s degree in Women’s Studies and Sociology at Brandeis with a focus on women in the workplace. Christina is a former assistant fund manager and technology industry equity analyst at Wellington Management. She also worked as a stock analyst at Fidelity Investments. She is a trustee of a private foundation, a member of Women Moving Millions and currently sits on the board of Rosie’s Place, a sanctuary for poor and homeless women in Boston.