Jennifer Keitt has made a career out of talking. For 34 years, she’s been leading lectures, workshops and radio programs, with one purpose: to raise women’s awareness around self-empowerment issues. Four years ago, she had a light-bulb moment: It’s not just grown-ups who can benefit from some serious introspection.
“That’s when I started talking to high school juniors and seniors,” said the Kennesaw resident. “I re-oriented my organization to delve into empowerment issues for younger women. And that’s now our groove.”
With her daughter, Morgan Holmes, Keitt is the co-founder of the Keitt Institute, a program she’s taken into area schools to encourage teens to do some soul searching around relationships, attitude, anger management and more.
The four-week sessions have been held at Sprayberry High in East Cobb, Campbell High in Smyrna and Autrey Mill Middle School in Alpharetta. Participants are recommended by teachers, school social workers, counselors and girls who have attended previous sessions.
“We then get together to talk about topics like character strengths, understanding emotional intelligence, healthy and non-healthy relationships, and the must-have habits of strong girls and women,” said Keitt. “We use character strengths assessments and models for emotional learning, just like executive coaching. But the students don’t realize that’s what it is.”
Specific skills tie into emotional intelligence, such as being able to name emotions appropriately, understanding what emotions are and expresssing them appropriately.
“We have them think about what they’re thinking when they’re angry, sad, disgusted and happy,” said Keitt. “They learn they can control what they’re feeling using strategies based on what they’re thinking.”
To Cobb County School social worker Maggy Hoskins, those are critical skills.
“This program focuses awareness of self and relationships skills by having students explore themselves and get comfortable with who they are,” she said. “It uses concrete pre- and post-tests to help students learn more about themselves, and when you have that knowledge, you’ll be more successful at anything you do.”
Hoskins has watched girls in the program learn how to practice navigating complex ideas such as emotional intelligence. “I’ve also had them come back with examples of how they’ve used that information in their own lives. It’s been a positive experience for the girls I’ve seen go through it.”
Campbell High senior Tanya Garcia went through the program last fall after being recommended by a friend.
“I learned how important it is to control my emotions and take care of myself,” she said. “It showed me what a relationship should have: trust, honesty, reliability. I learned a lot of new things while discovering my top five strengths and characteristics. It was an eye-opening experience.”
It’s also an experience Keitt wishes her own now-adult daughters could have had.
“None of them received the benefit of what we have now – the chance to intentionally move young women through a verified model to teach them how to use their personalities to navigate emotionally – in just eight hours.”
Information about the Keitt Institute is online at keittinstitute.org.
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Each week we look at programs, projects and successful endeavors at area schools, from pre-K to grad school. To suggest a story, contact H.M. Cauley at hm_cauley@yahoo.com or 770-744-3042.
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