
{"id":4910,"date":"2009-02-19T10:44:36","date_gmt":"2009-02-19T18:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=4910"},"modified":"2009-02-19T10:45:18","modified_gmt":"2009-02-19T18:45:18","slug":"mcdougle-middle-students-mentored-by-esteem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/02\/19\/mcdougle-middle-students-mentored-by-esteem\/","title":{"rendered":"McDougle Middle students mentored by ESTEEM"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>By Kafi Robinson<br \/>\nCourtesy of the Carrboro Commons<br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\nThough the program is only in its first full year, Esteemed Little Sisters has already had an impact on the lives of young girls at McDougle Middle School.<\/p>\n<p>Esteemed Little Sisters is a mentoring program for at-risk girls founded by the UNC campus organization Encouraging Sisters Through Empowerment Education and Motivation (ESTEEM). Working in cooperation with McDougle Middle\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s after-school program, the mentors help with homework and studying. They also host talk sessions, plan games and do arts and crafts and many other hands-on activities that educate the girls about their lives.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Last semester, we had them decorate their writing journals and we also had a Spa Day,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Dawn Sankary, ESTEEM\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s co-president. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We made smoothies, painted the girls\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 nails and let them lead an open discussion.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The program was founded when members of ESTEEM felt the need to share the skills they have learned with a younger group of girls. In response, ESTEEM teamed up with McDougle Middle\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s guidance counselors to create a group for the younger students, based on ESTEEM\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s guiding principles.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We work with a group of sixth and seventh graders and teach them life lessons: how to be a lady, body image issues, staying focused in school, how to deal with different types of relationships,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Sankary. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We just teach them how to be well rounded.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Sankary says that the primary goal of the program is to teach the girls lessons in a fun and active environment, something they might not otherwise get.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The girls are really receptive to the mentors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 help and they appreciate when we come,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Sankary.<\/p>\n<p>For many of the girls, Esteemed Little Sisters is an outlet. It gives them a chance to receive assistance with homework and find a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153big sister\u00e2\u20ac\u009d who they can look up to. The mentors said that sometimes these girls just need someone outside of a school or home setting with whom they can talk.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We saw some positive changes in these girls and hope that we see more this year as well,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Sankary.<\/p>\n<p><em>Kafi Robinson is a UNC student writing for the Carrboro Commons, a bi-weekly online lab newspaper for Jock Lauterer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Community Journalism class at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Kafi Robinson Courtesy of the Carrboro Commons Though the program is only in its first full year, Esteemed Little Sisters has already had an impact on the lives of young girls at McDougle Middle School. Esteemed Little Sisters is a mentoring program for at-risk girls founded by the UNC campus organization Encouraging Sisters Through&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-schools","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4910"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4913,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4910\/revisions\/4913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}