Charleston Promise Neighborhood’s (CPN) mission is to ensure that all of our Neighborhood students are on track to graduate 
high school with the skills necessary to enter college, the workforce, or the military. To that end, on Monday, May 22nd, CPN partnered with Sanders-Clyde and 37 local female business and community leaders to bring an afternoon of goal setting, positivity, and mentorship to life for 75 girls.
“Girl Talk: The Writing is on the Wall” brought Sanders-Clyde students and female mentors together to discuss future goals, both long and short term. Students specifically focused on their goals for middle and high school, which ranged from joining chorus in middle school, to attending Harvard Law School. Mentors shared their personal journeys to help students envision their own futures, and map out the pathway to get there. Mentors worked with individual students to find visual representations in magazines that match their identified goals. Students placed photographs, quotes, and clippings in a frame to create vision boards that 
they took home as a reminder of their personal pathway to success.
The importance of mentorship is crucial in achieving goals, especially for our Neighborhood students. According to youth.gov, additional benefits of having a mentor include: increased graduation rates, higher college enrollment rates, improved behavior at both school and home, and a decrease in risky behavior. With statistics revealing that upwards of 80% of CEO’s had mentors, this event could truly have a long-term positive impact on our students. As this school year comes to an end, students at Sanders-Clyde will begin the process of transitioning from elementary to middle school, and middle to high school. This big step forward is met with mixed feelings, including excitement and nervousness. Thankfully, our students have visual representations from their time with these local business leaders to serve as a reminder of their goals, and lessons learned.
To find out how you can support CPN programs and events like this, click here.
