CEOs and girls work on future

By Shelia M. Poole

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Lillian Ansley is sitting outside the dining hall at Camp Timber Ridge in Mableton, writing a rap song about saving the planet.

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Johnny Crawford jcrawford@ajc.com Lorraine Chilvers (left) and Vickie Hamilton (right) try to help Ester Campi inside a cube without touching it during a team building exercise at Girl Scouts Camp Timber Ridge, where 30 high school girls were linked with senior executive women.

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Johnny Crawford jcrawford@ajc.com Mentors and girls link arms at the camp, which brought them together for a variety of experiences aimed at helping develop leadership skills.

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Johnny Crawford jcrawford@ajc.com Nicole Schwensen gives instructions to her mentor, Nancy Rafuse, a managing partner with the Ashe, Rafuse & Hill law firm, as she navigates blindfolded through a set of ropes at the camp.

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• Girl Scouts camp helps mold our future leaders
• Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta

It’s a far cry from her usual Friday mornings, which are a whirlwind of meeting with clients or members of her team in the Atlanta office of Golin Harris, an international public relations firm.

This day, though, she is surrounded by woods and working with high school students Caitlyn Davis and LaTia Appling on the rap song.

Ansley was among about 30 top female executives who recently participated in Camp CEO, a mentoring program of the Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta. High school girls from across metro Atlanta are matched one-on-one with businesswomen who work on a variety of activities and listen and learn from each other.

“This has motivated me to mentor more women,” said Ansley, a senior vice president with the firm. “We’ve still got a long way to go. There was one woman who is the only female senior lending officer at her bank. There was another woman who was the only female trader at her firm. ... It’s important to have the camaraderie of other women.”

This is the second year for the program in metro Atlanta.

Many of the girls in the program are at a point where they are making the first significant decisions in their lives, said Marilyn W. Midyette, CEO of the Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta. They’re exploring career and school choices, developing their character and just navigating life’s challenges. The female CEOs can help in those decisions and give them insight into what their future might hold as well as help them develop leadership skills.

“The Girl Scouts in the 21st century is about more than cookies and camping. It’s a true commitment to leadership development,” Midyette said.

The women also learned from each other and got a chance to network.

Some of the CEOs explained to their young buddies that women still must work extra hard to get ahead in the corporate world. For instance, although their presence is increasing in boardrooms and corporate suites, women still hold fewer top executive jobs than men. And their pay also has not kept up. In 2010, U.S. women were paid 77 cents for every dollar paid to men, according the Wisconsin-based 9to5 National Association of Working Women. For Latinas and African-American women, the gap was wider.

Discussions ranged from balancing personal and professional lives and moving ahead in business.

Vicki W. Hamilton, a former senior vice president at Turner Broadcasting and now an active member of several boards, advised Janelle James, 15, to make her own mark.

“Don’t feel you have to stay if you’re not passionate about the work,” Hamilton said. “If you make a mistake, you grow from the mistake. What’s important is that you don’t give up and you don’t lose confidence.”

James, a student at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School in Fayetteville, is interested in chemical engineering. She wondered what it would be like in such a male-dominated field.

“You have to always remember when you walk into the room, although you look different, you don’t have to be different,” Hamilton said. “When you speak their language in terms of engineering, then they begin to respect you on that intellectual level.”

Nicole Schwensen learned more about the legal field from her buddy, Nancy Rafuse, a managing partner with the Ashe, Rafuse & Hill law firm.

“It’s not easy like it looks on TV,” said Schwensen, a rising sophomore at McIntosh High School in Peachtree City. Rafuse and Schwensen have already made plans to stay in contact and Schwensen plans to visit the law firm in the future.

“Thirty years ago we were telling girls, ‘Yes, you can,’ ” Rafuse said. “Now, it’s ‘Here’s how and here are all the possibilities.’ ”