Mentors give girls exposure, experience, empowerment

Jamie Glaze, '07, knows what at-risk girls need to change their lives around, and she has found a way to give it to them.

Glaze is one of those people who, having achieved success in their own life, become passionately dedicated to helping others succeed. “Some people perceive giving as a burden, but I don’t,” Glaze says. “It really builds you up. You’ll be surprised what you can learn about yourself.”

Glaze is the founder of Girls Reclaiming Individual Purpose in Society (GRIPS), an emerging mentoring organization for young women that operates under the umbrella of the faith-based Northwest Leadership Foundation.

GRIPS pairs college-educated women with middle- and high-school-age girls at risk of dropping out of school. The mentors act as chaperones for field trips to college campuses, and as emotional and practical support to help the girls stay in school and prepare for college.

Three co-directors operate GRIPS, including Glaze, Chana Lawson, ’07, and Tiffanie Beatty, a graduate of Whitworth University. But Glaze is the heart of the operation; her experiences as an adoptive parent and host parent for international exchange students inspired the endeavor. She is the adoptive mother of three teen girls, each of them from impoverished, broken families, as well as another daughter.  

“I knew what these girls needed,” she recalls. “They needed exposure, they needed love, but they also needed discipline.” 

An Army-kid who saw a lot of the world early on, Glaze became an international host parent when she began raising her own family. She believed the bookish accomplishments of a few worldly young sojourners would make positive impressions on her daughters.

Glaze enrolled one adopted daughter in TCC’s Fresh Start program, after a couple of failed attempts at finishing high school. “She tested really well and ended up getting high grades” Glaze says. “She just didn’t know what she was capable of.”

These experiences, coupled with the intimate understanding of the social and academic needs of the girls she was raising, eventually inspired the GRIPS mission: fostering social and academic empowerment.

GRIPS events during the school year revolve around campus visits to attend lectures, plays and concerts. Last year they attended a play, Souls of Black Girls, at Pacific Lutheran University and, at UW Tacoma, a lecture with civil-rights activist Bobby Seale and a poetry reading with Mahogany Browne.

The organization keeps girls engaged during the summer, too. They have taken trips to experience the cultural highlights of Seattle, hikes at Dungeness Spit, a tour of Victoria, B.C., and beachcombing in Seaside, Ore.

Glaze credits her studies at UW Tacoma with professors Emily Ignacio, Michael Honey, Trista Huckleberry and Luther Adams as the catalyst for change in her own life.

“It gave me energy,” she said. “Made me see how it can be done.”