Polished Pebbles Girls Mentoring helps advance Chicago area girls' success 15 years on
CHICAGO (CBS) – A local mentoring program shows what can happen when communities invest in a young girl by mentoring and supporting her.
The program is on a mission to inspire girls to do great things.
Teja Syers got the job as a sales manager of the Hyatt Place in Hyde Park.
"I needed a partner like Teja," said Cary Finucane, the director of sales at Hyatt Place Chicago South, adding, "I've been watching from the sidelines a couple of blocks down from the Sophy Hotel."
But it was how Syers got to the job that caught CBS 2's attention.
Syers was a part of the after school program at the University of Chicago Charter School way back in 2011, the early years of Polished Pebble's Girls Mentoring Program led by Kelly Fair.
"We said, let's go out. Let's find area companies and organizations that would be willing to host girls for like a day," Fair said.
Syers got to spend a day at Bloomingdale's.
"It kinda got me a head start thinking about my career, which made me think, 'What do I want to do?'" Syers said. "'What do I want to be in life?'"
Fast forward 10 years, when Syers graduated from Alabama A&M University with a bachelor's in business, a hunger for more and a key relationship with Fair.
"She kept in contact with me and she presented me with an opportunity to come take some photos for our headshots," Syers said of Fair.
That was at the Sophy Hotel in Hyde Park, where Fair also helped Syers get an internship.
"I learned as fast as I could without even touching anything," Syers said. "Just because I wanted to prove a point and leave an impression."
She sure did leave an impression. Syers was hired soon after to work in guest services, then was promoted to a sales coordinator position, and then to sales manager at the Hyatt sister property down the street.
"When you have an individual like Teja that got exposure early on, and then the opportunity was offered to her, and then for he to be able to take it and run with it, I think is just a great dynamic," said Leroy Brown Jr., general manager of Hyatt Place Chicago South. "It speaks to what Kelly and her organization has done as a platform."
It's a platform for Black and brown girls who may not otherwise have one.
"We need to close a hope gap for those girls because they become a little hopeless," said Fair. "And sometimes, there are not people in their immediate family and circumstances that seem to care for them.
"I'm hoping that the girls who get a chance to see Teja will see themselves in Teja."
Fair is hoping that happens by exposing girls to new and different experiences.
"Being in the organization at such a young age, just, it motivated me," Syers said.
She added, "They got me in the doors, so I was then able to open the doors for my twin sister. I got her in as a front desk agent, so that was exciting."
So what would Syers say to a young girl watching her journey?
"Be coachable," she said. "Be teachable, and just stay motivated and positive about the future."
When Polished Pebbles started 15 years ago, there were only two girls in the program and it was just one day a month.
Now, the program runs Monday through Friday, plus summers in 90 schools across 900 square miles of Chicagoland.
To learn more about Polished Pebbles Girls Mentoring, visit PolishedPebbles.com.