It wasn’t a job offer or goals of being a CEO that brought Chekesha White to become founder and executive director of the Hampton Roads G.I.R.L.S. Club (Girls Influenced by Righteous Living in All Situations). For her, it was a higher calling to give back to her community.
On its website, G.I.R.L.S. Club (GC) is described as a community-based mentorship program for girls in fourth grade through high school. Striving to empower at-risk teen girls to succeed in every area of life regardless of family background, educational challenges or socio-economic status, GC assists girls in addressing behaviors, academics, social, emotional and spiritual sides, all while being guided by supporting mentors.
Raised in Gloucester County, White stayed local to pursue a further education, hitting the trifecta as a “Pirate, Captain and a Monarch.” She achieved a bachelor of science degree in biology from Hampton University, a master’s degree in teaching from Christopher Newport University and her Educational Specialist License from Old Dominion University.
As a student, she realized she was called not just to be a member of her community, but also to lead it. As a teacher, White says she began seeing a need for something more for the young girls she taught.
“What made me move in this direction was seeing the girls’ lack of confidence and their succumbing to peer pressure, being flirtatious with boys and just not owning who they are and trying to fit in,” White says. “I realized I needed to show them that there’s more to life. You can be whatever you want to be as long you put your mind to it.”
In 2005, White started an after-school G.I.R.L.S. Club with just a few of the students she taught in class. By 2010, she added an extra set of hands to help mentor the girls.
White moved from teaching to become an assistant principal, a position she held for nine years. Despite her love for teaching and working within the schools, she felt a calling to take on a new path. So G.I.R.L.S. Club for the broader community was born.
“We weren’t enough,” she says about herself and one other person running the program. White sought a nonprofit foundation status and the program grew. Reaching out through social media and students she has taught, she continued acquiring a group of mentors to help guide the girls. Today, GC has 72 mentors with approximately 500 girls enrolled every year.
The organization, she says, has never needed advertising campaigns because word of mouth has been its best recruitment tactic. Seven of the girls who were once mentees of the program have become mentors themselves.
“That shows the power of our impact,” she says. Most of the mentors bring friends to become involved.
G.I.R.L.S. Club is designed to be embedded within school systems for accessibility and hands-on assistance. White worked to train teachers to “duplicate herself,” she says, to help have a more direct impact with the girls. After class, girls meet with their mentors at their school. “We teach them about hygiene, womanhood and navigating female troubles,” White says. “Twice a year, GC holds touchpoints for parents to make deliberate efforts to become involved with their child’s experience in the club.
“It takes a village to raise a child,” she says. “We are available to anyone, and any parent who wants and needs to get their daughter plugged in. The more parents get others involved in their village just makes their child’s future so much brighter.”
White continues to give back to her community with her active involvement and commitment, inspiring young women with her enthusiasm and willingness as G.I.R.L.S. Club grows.
TO THE POINT:
G.I.R.L.S. Club
Contact: Chekesha White, Executive Director and Founder
Phone: 757-598-4475
Email: girlsclubhr@gmail.com
Website: girlsclubhr.com
