Fresh out of the water: Girls with PEARLS promotes empowerment through sisterhood
Beginning in the 2024-25 school year, Girls with Positive Energy and Attitude Reflecting Leadership Skills has successfully debuted at Cedar Shoals. Known as BEE Club in years prior, the club’s new name was not only a rebrand, but an opportunity for a feminine empowerment club specially engineered to the girl culture at Cedar Shoals.
Becoming Empowered through Education Club is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded by Akilah Blount in her senior year at Westlake High School after her rejection from a female leadership club, the organization slowly spread throughout Atlanta.
School leaders felt that a way to unite female students was sorely needed, and it came in the form of instilling the BEE Club at Cedar Shoals. When Blount reached out to current club advisors Angela Gay and Shamikia Bolton in 2019 with the proposal of starting the club at Cedar, it proved to be the opportunity they were searching for. Thus Cedar Shoals became the first and only school outside of Atlanta to host the BEE Club.
“We’ve always had an interest in trying to find ways to help our young ladies to get along with one another, because at one point, that was a huge issue here at Cedar. We felt it was time to find a place for girls, a safe place where they can come and have fellowship with one another,” Bolton said. “With the club, a lot of the girls realized they had a lot more in common than they had differences.”
As there had not yet been a feminine leadership club at Cedar, the experience proved new and interesting to navigate. Luckily, as a developed third party organization, BEE Club had a set curriculum and plan. This curriculum and structure laid a foundation and helping hand, giving Bolton and Gay a safety cushion to fall back on as they learned how to guide a club of this sort.
Cedar Shoals first hosted the BEE Club in 2019. As the years went on and the club developed in the community, it became apparent that the structure of BEE Club needed revision to continue at Cedar Shoals. This inspired the club members and advisors to branch out and create something completely new.
“(The founder) developed her own curriculum, so we were kind of in a box. We had to deliver what was given to us to deliver to our students,” Gay said. “A part of the BEE Club program at one point focuses on (only) juniors and seniors, whereas we wanted our program to be open to all grades. So we felt constrained.”
With this in mind, a decision was made; the 2023-34 school year would mark the fourth and final year of BEE club at Cedar, fading into the background in exchange for the development of something new.
Although the club ended at Cedar, the support and lessons it taught the girls and advisors wasn’t forgotten. With the experience of BEE Club under their belts, the members and leadership of the club developed a club more suited to the school’s community over the summer: Girls with PEARLS.
“We developed our own curriculum and program of delivery. We could be as creative as we wanted to be, and not be confined to someone else’s ideas. We created our own mission statement, our own program delivery model. What would this look like? What will Girls with PEARLS look like? Who will we serve?” Gay said.
As the president of BEE Club at the beginning of the summer break in 2024 and president of an entirely different club at the end, junior Quinn Jefferies watched the club transform and grow into Girls with PEARLS.
“Girls with PEARLS is a club for the girls at Cedar Shoals, where we create a community where they feel like they belong and where they can feel like they can tell anyone anything. We try to prep them for college and prep them for real world experiences, and basically just try to get them out into the community as best as we can,” Jefferies said.
The sisterhood-esque structure of the club has created a place that girls all over Cedar can flock to and benefit from the different feminine perspectives from all over the community.
“I love the fact of bringing the girls together in such a diverse group. They get to see their similarities when they’re going through challenges. Sometimes we’ll just open up meetings and say, ‘Hey, let’s just have a girl talk.’ Depending on what’s going on in our school community, our world, we’ll open it up just to see them work through some of the challenges that young women face; just to see how they communicate with one another and how they look up to each other as well. They encourage one another,” Bolton said.
Support being a predominant feature of sisterhood, senior and club secretary Tatyana Coleman has hopes that the club provides a space that makes the girls feel comfortable growing.
“I hope that (girls) gain more confidence, especially in today’s age when women aren’t really looked at as equal. So I hope they gain the confidence to overcome that mindset and figure out what is best for them,” Coleman said.
As the 2024-25 school year draws to a close, the club hopes that they’re able to grow their participation and membership in the future. Moves have already been made to reach out to Cedar Shoals’ feeder middle schools, Coile and Hilsman.
“What we envision growth wise for Girls with PEARLS is that in the middle schools, not only to prepare rising 9th graders, they can start mini Girls with PEARLS groups in their schools. So they can start building those skill sets early instead of waiting until they’re in high school,” Gay said.
Building off of the foundation BEE Club set, Girls with PEARLS has had a strong beginning. Successfully promoting the ideals of sisterhood and feminine leadership among the girls of the Cedar community, the club members have confidence that this year will mark the first of many.
