The Shining Women, Bright Futures Speaker Series, Part Deux

On February 4th, the middle school SCORES girls at the Umana Barnes had another priceless opportunity to meet professional women from the Boston community as a part of SCORES Shining Women, Bright Futures speaker series. The professional women who took a trip to East Boston this time included Jackie Jenkens-Scott, President of Wheelock College, Diana Cutaia, Director of Athletics at Wheelock College, and Teresa Soares-Pena, the Executive Director at Squashbusters. Each of the speakers spoke about their jobs, and how they knew what job was right for them. Each girl got a chance to speak with each speaker, and at the end the girls wrote journal entries which helped them reflect upon their experiences. When the girls shared what they had written, it became clear that the speakers had a profound impact on their understanding about careers and their futures. While one girl wrote that, “To have a good career, I have to like what I do” another noted that “I learned about all of the requirements that colleges look for.” One girl happily declared that “I don’t have to have just one job.” By the end of the day, speaker Teresa Soares-Pena was so impressed with the girls that she said that she would remember how “motivated and goal oriented [they] all are.”

Stay tuned for updates about future speaker series...and don't forget, if you'd like to volunteer as a speaker yourself, email astrong@americascores.org!