A Powerful Role Model
Category: WebExtras
Young Men With POWER, an organization founded by Keenen Geter, B.A. ’13, to help Baltimore-area youth develop life and career skills, branched out to include young women in 2014.
Led by Young Men With POWER board member Katia Fortune, Women With CLASS (Character, Leadership, Achievement, Strength and Success) helps middle- and high-school-age girls in the Baltimore area cultivate leadership skills and self-confidence and focus on contributing to their communities.
“We saw the success of Young Men With POWER that first year, and several people—including parents—asked us if we had a program for their daughters,” Geter says. “That was the energy we needed to launch Women With CLASS.”
The girls’ program operates alongside, but separate from, the Young Men With POWER workshops and addresses many of the same topics, such as college prep, career development and dressing professionally. But Women With CLASS also features workshops on self-esteem and female empowerment and aims to help girls identify a career or an area of study about which they’re passionate.
“By having both programs running at the same time, we’ve had brothers and sisters enroll together,” Geter says. “We also come together for certain workshops and trips.”
Twenty girls have completed the program to date, and more continue to enroll.
