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Kisha McDowell wants to change the world, one girl at a time.
One of her projects is LEAP, Leaders & Entrepreneurs for the Aspirations and Promotion of Girls.
On a recent Saturday afternoon a small group of her aspiring leaders gathered at the POPS pavilion in Forest City to hand out bags of information about the program, meet new girls, and promote the work.
"We want girls to have the confidence to start their own businesses," McDowell said as her two daughters, Aniyah and Makalyla and Gracy Hodge milled nearby.
Hodge's mom, Dawnette, is a lead volunteer with the group and a budding business person herself. She cooks Caribbean food.
McDowell is cooking home-delivered meals for a small group of customers and can be found at 262-989-8982.
So that entrepreneurial spirit is not only being taught to the young women in the LEAP program, but it is being modeled by McDowell and Hodge, too.
Recent on-line programs have included exposing the LEAP girls to Mia Chapman and Bud Rosan who work with American Zink. The two industrial leaders taught the girls about their skills in working on the industrial scene.
McDowell also mentioned the example of Rosa Parks whose leadership was at the heart of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the igniting incident that fueled the modern civil rights movement. Parks, who was secretary of the local NAACP, had prepared through training and prayer, for the day she would defy the bus segregation in Montgomery.
She probably could not have imagined that her courageous refusal to give her seat to a white man would result in the Supreme Court striking down bus segregation in Montgomery and across the nation.
McDowell hopes to instill success thinking and believing in the girls through strategies that she describes as: don't leap to conclusions about anyone or anything, use sharing to open doors to communication, engage in learning, find effective strategies, plan the execution, and reach the goal.
To find out more call 828-229-3380 or email the group at leap4girlsfc@gmail.com.
