FOUNDER WANTS TO NORMALIZE MENTORING

Polished Pebbles, founded by executive director Kelly Fair in 2009, is a girls mentoring program that prepares girls for their futures in the workplace. Photo provided by Polished Pebbles
Polished Pebbles, founded by executive director Kelly Fair in 2009, is a girls mentoring program that prepares girls for their futures in the workplace. Photo provided by Polished Pebbles

Founder wants to normalize mentoring

BY TIA CAROL JONES
      Kelly Fair, founder and executive director of Polished Pebbles, has been in education for more than 20 years. She is a trained speech pathologist and worked with the college prep programs at Christ Universal Temple.
     Fair managed marketing division with McGraw-Hill, but missed having a more direct impact on young people and volunteer opportunities she had prior to her position with the textbook company.
      “I didn’t know what the next step would be, but I said, ‘I think it’s time to do something different.’ And, had been inspired by a mentor of mine, who taught me a lot about community work, girls’ work. And, I left my corporate job,” she said.
     Fair took a part-time job as a bank teller and worked on Polished Pebbles, which started off as a community-based girls’ mentoring program. Fair said the mentor, The Reverend Dr. Linda Shephard, taught her a lot of about doing work in communities with women and young girls. She said The Rev. Dr. Shephard has been such an awesome mentor while she worked at Christ Universal Temple. She said Shephard was passionate about her professionalism and passionate about the community.
      Fair said Shephard passed away suddenly in 2006. She said while trying to figure out how to keep programs Shephard started going, that was when Fair started to think about Polished Pebbles. Fair said Polished Pebbles is a way to continue Shephard’s legacy and keep the women she brought together. Those women ended up being mentors with Polished Pebbles. Fair started Polished Pebbles in 2009, with two girls.
     “We focus on girls being great communicators at home, school and in future workplace. That future workplace influence is a personal one for me,” Fair said, adding that she was a shy kid.
Fair added, in sixth grade, after transferring to another school, that is when her self-esteem took a nose dive, which she said is common for most girls. But, she said the influence of Essence magazine, was constant for her.
     “Essence women were beautiful, they were bold, they had great clothes, they were family women, like my mother, they had careers. And, I wanted to be an Essence career lady,” she said.
     At 13, Fair was an intern at Dudley Beauty School. She said the shyness went out the window. She said that first work experience put all the communications skills together.
     “It gave me that drive and that motivation as to why to move forward. At Polished Pebbles, we seek to do the same thing. We create opportunities with various businesses that we partner with, whether it be Bloomingdales, Microsoft, The Hyatt, engineering and construction firms, to give that first work experience to say, ‘that’s why you have to be a good communicator, that’s why confidence is important, that’s why you can’t pop off on the girl sitting next to you.’ Because, we’re going somewhere with this,” she said.
     Fair said there has to be a closing of the “hope gap,” where they don’t see reflections of role models or opportunities, within a four to six block radius.
     “We seek to create those experiences and bring those people into their lives, so they can have hope as to why they’re doing these things and where they’re going. And, we hope to equip them with the skills and those exploration experiences to give them that hope and push them forward to see themselves as CEOs,” she said.
     Fair said she was a girl who was mentored. She said she always had strong female mentors throughout her life. She said those women embraced, mentored and groomed her.
     “Somebody lifted you up, somebody groomed or polished you, and it’s our duty to make sure we’re polishing others,” she said.
     Fair also is the author of They’re All the Same Girl and Every Girl is a CEO. They’re All the Same Girl was written seven years after Polished Pebbles was founded, and served a guide for people thinking about mentoring and wanting to get involved. Every Girl is a CEO was written at the ten-year mark to prepare girls for the workplace. Fair said the book provides girls with a blueprint for them to be successful in their future career and is the only career and success guide for girls of Color.
      “It’s the diversity and power that we have as Black women to show up authentically as ourselves, which means I can pivot, I can be flexible and I’m always the same South Side girl. I just know how to polish it up for different environments and different context,” she said.
     For more information on Polished Pebbles, visit https://polishedpebbles.com.

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