Archive: Around Town

Most daughters will make do with getting a card, flowers, or maybe some chocolate this Mother's Day, but about 15 girls will spend a unique day of facing physical challenges and bonding with their mothers.  Moms As Mentors is being offered at Cornell's Hoffman Challenge Course for mothers who want to help their daughters grow into strong, confident women as well as just get to know their daughters better.

"The purpose of the program is to enhance communication, bonding, and sharing between mothers and their daughters," says Katie Drossos, who with Courtney Wilkinson is managing this year's event.  "We're going to be doing this through high ropes, low ropes, a nutrition segment led by Sue Travis, and a story board segment led by Pamela Moss."

Moms As Mentors was the brainchild of Emilie Liebhoff.  She conceived the program while researching girls’ development when she was earning her MBA at Cornell's Johnson School.  Drossos and Wilkinson, who are set to graduate from the Johnson school this year, happened to be at a workshop at the Cornell Team and Leadership Center at the same time Liebhoff was hosting a Moms As Mentors session.

The three had much in common.  As Park Fellows, Drossos and Wilkinson were looking for a way to give back to the Ithaca community, and they were drawn to Liebhoff.  Drossos, who is studying brand management and marketing, and Wilkinson , who is focussing on finance and asset management, decided to put their talents to use not only in running a day-long session, but to study how Moms As Mentors can grow into a national organization.

The purpose of the program is to engage mothers and daughters in activities that require cooperation and help them get to know each other better.  A large part of the program is geared toward daughters and mothers learning things about each other that they may not otherwise know.

"For girls the issues we think will arise are issues related to their friends, school work, whether they want to go to college, or be captain of the cheerleading squad, their body image, where they are with boys," Wilkinson   notes.  "These are defining and tough issues.  It's an artistic exercise to put this on a board to say this looks like me.  And the moms are doing the same thing."

So far three of the four sessions held over the years (including the one scheduled for May 8th) have been held at Cornell, with another session in Belmont, Massachusetts.  Wilkinson and Drossos used comments from past participants to plan the schedule.

The morning will start with community building games.  Next will be a nutrition segment, and then the Cornell Team and Leadership Center staff will put the women and daughters through the low ropes course.  After lunch they'll climb to the high ropes course for a couple of hours, and the day will end with a 'vision-board' exercise where mothers and daughters will share dreams, aspirations, worries and concerns.  The day will end with 'warm-down' yoga.

"There is an athletic part, and artistic part, and a communications part of the program," Wilkinson  says.  "Kids can come away saying 'Not only did I not know my mom could climb in the trees, but when she was my age she had some of the concerns that I have.'  Or 'she wanted to be a teacher, and that's what I want to do.'  We hope to build on some common threads of aspirations that they can take home with them as well."

The two say they are excited about the session, and because they are in an age group between the moms and daughters that will attend they hope to act as a bridge between the generation gap.  Drossos will become a mother for the first time later this year, and is already anticipating how her relationship will form.

"I have a great relationship with my mother," she says.  "As a mother to be I am thinking about how I can have the same type of relationship with my future daughter.  I would take advantage of a program like this in a snap."


Funding for the session has been awarded by the Triad Foundation, and in-kind donations from Joe's Restaurant will provide lunch.  Most of the money along with program fee will pay for fees at Cornell Team and Leadership Center.  Funding from private individuals will also pay for scholarships for mother/daughters who couldn't otherwise afford to attend the workshop.

The Wilkinson and Drossos will finish the project with a report on how to make Moms As Mentors a sustainable, scalable, program with specific recommendations on organizing it to expand on a national scale.

"I would love to bring it to another city," Wilkinson says.  "The coolest thing that we could do is that by getting the word out to our classmates and the community is that if someone moves to Chicago next year and they've got some bandwidth for community involvement they could say this is a great thing we could install in the community.  We could send them a 60 page guide book."

The insights mothers and daughters will gain next weekend are intended as a springboard for a closer future relationship.  The hope is that with a practice-based approach that mothers and daughters will naturally learn to value each other more as they are forced to depend on each other to meet the challenges of the day.

"It would be great to have the girls walk away with 'I didn't know my mom could do X.' or 'To see my mom 30 feet in the air -- I had no idea she could do that,'" Wilkinson  says.  "That's something we hope the girls can take away.  What better way to celebrate Mother's Day?"

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