Nonprofit Girls Inc. empowers teenagers

Patty Fernandez directs an organization that inspires girls to be strong, smart and bold.

She’s a good role model to those young girls of what empowered women can achieve if they believe in themselves.

Fernandez has been involved with the Central Coast affiliate of Girls Inc. almost since it was established in 2001. The organization works with girls between 9 and 18; it has served more than 900 of them through 24 schools in six local cities.

A 1999 graduate of CSU Monterey Bay with a degree in liberal studies, Fernandez started out as a volunteer mentor and eventually became the organization’s executive director.

“I am so grateful the founders of Girls Inc. saw the need for girls to take a look at their options in life – to understand they have options – and created a program dedicated to young women so they could learn what to envision, to ask for, to hope for, to achieve,” she said.

While most of the programs are held after school hours, a weeklong session is offered during the summer, called “Smart Choices.” More than 40 girls who are about to enter high school will head to CSUMB June 14-18. They’ll explore the university and learn about the requirements for attending college. They’ll also attend workshops that focus on healthy relationships, peer pressure, self-image, self-esteem and healthy eating habits.

“Smart Choices enables girls from King City to Castroville to spend a week living on campus and experience college life. The goal is to expose them now, so they will be inspired to prepare themselves to go to college. We tell them: these are your choices, these are the classes you need to take, the decisions you need to make in life,” Fernandez told the Monterey Herald.

“They get a taste of what they can have; it’s not out of reach. They can see it and touch it.” That’s significant because 95 percent of them will be the first in their families to go to college.