By Nance Ebert, Contributing Writer
Westborough – Stephanie Graham appears to have mastered the idea of multitasking with charm and ease. She is a wife, mother of three young children, Realtor and still finds time to volunteer for Girls, Inc., one day each week where she is a mentor to girls from the Abby Kelley Foster Charter School in Worcester.
Graham grew up in Westborough and married her high school sweetheart. Their three small children, daughter Neely, 4, son Isaac, 1 ?, and daughter Amelia, one month, all have adjusted to their mom’s busy schedule and Graham is grateful for the nanny that helps her family run smoothly.
Having been in the biotech industry for years in pharmaceutical sales, she realized that while she enjoyed her flexible schedule and interacting with people on a daily basis, the industry was not fulfilling her any more. A friend who she had known all of her life, Ed Newton, encouraged her to get her real estate license and join Mathieu Newton (Mike Mathieu and Ed Newton) Sotheby’s International Realty, where he is a broker.
“Ed has been asking me to do this for a while,” she recalled. “I was always scared to take the leap because I’s be going from a salaried position to one now that was commission based. I’s glad I took the leap. I felt that this was something I’s be good at and after starting a little over one year ago, I am glad I did make that decision.”
Graham became involved with Girls, Inc., when a close friend of hers, Colleen Dowd, who is on the board of the organization, mentioned that they were looking for volunteers to help mentor high school girls for a specific program called the “Leadership Academy.”
“That was the first thing that I volunteered for with Girls, Inc.,” Graham said. “They have a couple of different high schools and guidance counselors can nominate high school girls that they feel would benefit from their Leadership Academy ?. It’s a 12-week program where I was assigned two girls to mentor. There were 15 girls from the Abby Kelley Foster Charter School in Worcester in the program.”
In the Leadership Academy, there was a specific goal each week, ranging from taking care of finances, researching colleges, time management, money management and more.
For one of the programs, Graham participated in “Dress for Success,” where the girls were taught to dress and behave appropriately for an interview, whether it was for a job interview or a college admission interview.
“We gave each girl a donated gift card so that the girls could go to Macy’s,” she noted. “The girls all got to pick out a professional outfit. For many of these juniors and seniors, this was a life-changing moment and I got to be a part of it. That’s what I spent the most time volunteering for last year.”
Graham loves spending her time volunteering for Girls, Inc. She is passionate about their mission statement of empowering girls to become leaders and strong women in the community. She also helped with a “college shower,” at which local companies donated things that the students would need for their dorm room like bedding as well as school supplies like notebooks and even a Kindle.
“We are there to celebrate these girls. We hold a nice dinner where these girls, at the end of the night, leave with everything that they would need for college. This is one of the only organizations that I know of that does something like this,” Graham said.
Each of the mentor volunteers gets an opportunity to lead a group. This past year, Graham held one on leadership. The girls all talked about ways to do the right thing and be a leader whether that was at home or school.
“I wasn’s a leader in middle school,” Graham remembered. “Motherhood made me realize that I want my children to be leaders. I want my daughters to know that they can have any job that any boy can have. Volunteering at Girls, Inc., is a good way for me to lead by example for my children. Every time I’s there, I know I am making a difference. It’s very gratifying. I also try to be present wherever I am. Whatever I am doing, I give 100 percent.”
