When Breana Turner was in seventh grade, some classmates made snide remarks about her curly brown hair. Others, she said, wondered how a young girl of color could be so intelligent and well spoken.
The taunts still resonate with the George Mason University sophomore.
“It’s okay to be intelligent and a little black girl,” Turner said. “People want to put certain people in boxes, and when people are put in a box, it’s hard to realize it’s okay to be yourself.”
For Turner, it is not enough to talk about that unfairness. The kinesiology major in George Mason’s School of Recreation, Health and Tourism (part of the College of Education and Human Development) is doing something about it. She created Sisters with Ambition.
During monthly meetings at a Loudoun County library, Turner facilitates discussions with girls of color in the fifth through seventh grades about goals, self-esteem and not letting others define them.
“Although I may offer advice at times, my goal for the girls is for them to come to their own conclusions about who they are as a person,” Turner said. “I want the girls to walk away from this group feeling stronger and more confident in themselves.”
“As parents, we can do all the encouraging,” said Janice Suitte, whose daughter, Jania, is in the program. “Sometimes, someone from the outside who is young and talented can have a long-lasting and positive impact on Jania’s confidence level.”
Turner, who credits her parents with teaching her to “speak my mind correctly,” advertised Sisters with Ambition on Facebook and with fliers around her hometown of Aldie, Va.
“She clearly has ambition,” said Mason professor Alexandra Masterson, who had Turner in anatomy and physiology last year. “There didn’t seem to be barriers that were blocking her, and if there were, she knew how to deal with them and handled challenges with a lot of poise.”
Creating a conversation was key, Turner said of Sisters with Ambition’s first meeting that drew nine girls. Asking them about the lyrics in Beyonce’s Formation—“I dream it, I work hard, I grind till I own it”—was one way. Giving out colored candy was another. The colors represented things such as a favorite movie or free-time activity. Whatever color you got, that’s what you spoke about.
The group also establishes and tracks individual goals.
“We like that it’s not about Breana. It’s about the girls,” said Davida Aka, who brings her sixth-grade daughter, Ehlena, to the meetings. “The whole attitude about it is very warming.”
“A role model doesn’t have to be perfect,” Turner said. “I want them to realize I’m a real person. I’ve been through this, and I want to help.”