TINTON FALLS – Don’t limit yourself.
That was the sentiment expressed by a group of leading political women from the municipal, county and state levels who gathered at Monmouth Regional High School April 4 for the 13th annual Running & Winning event, a workshop for female high school juniors from around Monmouth County led by the League of Women Voters.
Some of the students who attend the program may be motivated to follow a political path, but the program’s co-founder Sherri Harris said the program is intended to inspire participants to be impactful in whatever they choose to do.
“One of the things we recognize is that not every young woman who comes to us is going to run for political office. But what we hope it will do is show them they have a voice. They have the ability to collaborate. And they have an opportunity to impact the world in a meaningful way,” Harris said. “We hope they develop an awareness that they are part of a bigger community. And they don’t have to sacrifice any one experience.”
Neptune Township High School student Joanna Georges said the program has played an integral role in her college planning.
Joanna said she’ll be attending Kent State University in the fall and is focused on feeding all of her interests.
“I’m a very business-oriented person and I love fashion a lot. My goal is to be a fashion entrepreneur, but I still want to positively impact the people around me,” said Joanna, a senior who went through the workshop last year and returned last week in a mentoring role.
Courtesy Aimee Humphreys
“I don’t want to be defined by anyone or pigeonhole myself. I have a dream, I have my interests and I have a goal to use whatever business platform I have to make an impact. But I am interested in politics, too. Who knows? Maybe I will run for office one day. But I don’t have to know right now. I can still be a leader in my community,” Joanna added.
Fair Haven councilwoman Susan Sorensen said she never intended to toss her hat into the political ring.
A successful businesswoman in the telecommunications industry, Sorensen moved to the Two River area in 1998 with her husband Peter Maher – former head of the borough’s zoning board – and said a greater sense of community service led her to run for the council.
“After work I started going to meetings. I began volunteering on a committee here and committee there. I was always involved, but I was never a political person. Politics are not for me,” Sorensen said. “But if you’re the right person for the job, you’re the right person. And when the opportunity presented itself for me to try and make a difference, I couldn’t let it pass.”
Atlantic Highlands Mayor Rhonda C. Le Grice said she hopes a byproduct of the day-long workshop is that the young women in attendance will be empowered to follow their dreams – all of them.
“These young women are 16 years old. No one knows what they want to be when they’re 16. Don’t limit yourself. It’s okay to change your mind and pursue everything you want in this life,” Le Grice said. “You don’t know who you want to be at 16 or 18 or even 20. Heck, I’m still waiting to grow up.”
After graduating from Elmira College in New York, Le Grice became a flight attendant for American Airlines, a position she held for 32 years, and was an active member of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants.
“I never thought I would be a mayor someday,” Le Grice added. “I changed my mind about the path I was on halfway through my life. It’s never too late to experience everything you want to pursue.”
Students who attended the workshop were broken up into small groups; they began the day interviewing such political leaders as assemblywomen Joann Downey (D-11) and Serena DiMaso (R-13), Monmouth County Freeholder Sue Kiley, Monmouth County Surrogate Rosemarie Peters and a number of municipal mayors, council and committeewomen and school board members.
Next the groups selected an issue ranging from mental health to global warming and worked alongside their group members on a public presentation for their peers about how to facilitate positive change in a school community.
“It was an empowering feeling to be working through these issues with so many great girls and to see what we could achieve someday by speaking to these powerful women,” Communications High School junior Tess Rempel said. “It was comforting to know that politics may not have been their interest to begin with. Not all of these women thought they’d be where they are today. But somewhere along the way their paths diverged and they saw an opportunity to make a bigger difference.”
