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Nestled on the shores of a lake, just off a rural Georgia highway is the Rock Ranch. It’s here the Steve and Marjorie Harvey Foundation hosts one of its “Girls Who Rule the World” mentoring camp. It’s also where, this year, you will find Drill Sergeants Kate-treena Orellana and Candice Beebe, with 3rd Battalion, 485th Regiment, 1st Brigade, 98th Training Division (IET), 108th Training Command (IET).
Designed to enhance the development of young girls, the camp provides a forum highlighting positive self-image, responsible conduct and respect for self and others. To help accomplish this, the foundation reaches out to local community leaders, Soldiers and role models to provide mentoring.
Staff Sgt. Orellana and Sgt. Beebe are two of those strong female mentors.
Selected for this mission because of the Army values they uphold on a daily basis and their willingness to be open and transparent with the girls they are mentoring, both drill sergeants were enthusiastic about the opportunity.
“When the girls got here they were split up into groups of 10, and two mentors were assigned to each group, we connected with these girls immediately,” said Orellana.
Beginning day one, the mentors embedded themselves with the girls, providing guidance and perspective on leadership and service, and sharing their personal stories to empower the impressionable young women. The Soldiers stayed overnight on the ranch and were able to demonstrate to the girls leadership and hard work.
“As drill sergeants we leave imprints on Soldiers lives that they will take with them even after they leave basic training, “said Beebe. “Being the example privates and young people can rely on to see doing the right thing is not a burden too big to bear.”
During the course of the camp, mentors were on hand to provide the young women with positive leadership, lectures on nutrition and physical fitness, life skills, career mapping, and implemented team and confidence building exercises to inspire them to reach their full potential.
“We are not here to make these girls listen and follow our lead. We (mentors) are all different, we have different stories but we all have survived and became better Soldiers and people because of it” said Beebe.
With mentors willing to be transparent about their lives and struggles and enthusiastic attendees at the camp, relationships quickly developed between the mentors and the girls.
“I didn’t know coming here would be so inspirational, my sisters and I all got to come together and we are learning a lot from our mentors,” said Toneen Brown, a camper from McDonough Ga.
“I’m what some people call a military brat so when the Drill Sergeants came in to greet us the first day I was a little nervous, but they were so nice. My mentor (Orellana) is like a big sister to me,” Brown said.
Drill sergeants can get a bad rap for being harsh, but, sometimes seeing is believing.
“As drill sergeants people assume we are mean and intimidating, and we can be, but we use discipline as a tool to teach,” said Orellana. “This camp allows us to help instill discipline and hard work into these girls.”
Because the goal of the mentoring camp is to produce leaders and empower young women to pursue excellence in every area of their lives, mentors are able to exchange contact information with the girls to continue building the budding relationships created during the camp.
“I can’t wait to get back home and tell my friends about this,” said Toneen.
As the camp continues to grow, so does the number of empowered young women.
“I won’t be of age next year to attend but my little sisters and friends back home will be and I want them to experience this.” said Toneen.
Several of the mentors shared stories of adversity and challenge, offering examples of times when it would have been easy to quit but they didn’t, which encouraged the girls attending to build resiliency in their own lives.
“They can take this back home to their friends at school and families and use what they’ve learned this week for the rest of their lives,” said Beebe.
| Date Taken: | 07.28.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 09.18.2017 15:49 |
| Story ID: | 248727 |
| Location: | THE ROCK, GEORGIA, US |
| Web Views: | 343 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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