Carlow schoolgirls selected for forward-looking mentorship programme
Presentation College students Isobel Peelo, Millie Gordon, Lily O’Connor and Doina Besleaga with Tammy Darcy founder of The Shona Project Photo:Chris Bellew / Fennell Photography
FOUR Carlow schoolgirls have been selected to take part in an initiative aimed at increasing confidence and enhancing resilience among teenage girls.
Doina Besleaga, Lily O’Connor, Isobel Peelo and Millie Gordon from Presentation College in Carlow town will form part of a pilot project by the Shona Project.
The Shona Project, a non-profit organisation which strives to create a support system for Irish girls as they navigate their way through their teenage years, recently announced details of a new mentorship programme which sets out to pair adolescent girls around Ireland with professional female mentors.
It will run for nine months, and the girls will have seven sessions with their assigned mentor.
The world isn’t always the easiest place to be a girl: our brains are often hardwired to see each other as competition, instead of seeing each other as a cheerleader. The Shona Project (TSP) believes in the power of girls supporting girls, and particularly established women supporting the younger generation.
Businesses taking part include Allianz, CBRE, Fitzgerald Power, McCann Fitzgerald, Salesforce, &Smyth Creative Communications and VHI, which will supply a total of 26 professional mentors, paired with a teenage girl from across the country.
The Shona Project is on track to reach almost 190,000 girls across Ireland through its workshops, events and other projects this academic year.
Shona Project Founder and CEO Tammy Darcy said: “Research on the benefits of mentoring has shown that it can result in better academic performance, better school attendance, positive attitudes, decreased likelihood of initiating illegal drug and alcohol use and decreased violent behaviour.”
It has also been linked in studies to social-emotional development benefits, improvements in youth perceptions of parental relationships and better prospects for moving on to higher education.
“Our aim is to continue to grow the mentorship programme and continue to match inspirational professional role models with girls to help support them through their teenage years,” she said.
The Shona Project has received a number of awards in recent years, including last year’s European Citizen’s Prize.
Best of luck to the Carlow students as they take on this wonderful, new experience.
