"I wasn’t at the girls club for that long, but while I was there, Rachela was super kind and helpful and always there to improve our ways of looking at life and taking on the world with perseverance. She taught me to never doubt myself and always respect the choices I made in life. I was only 12 yrs old at the time, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t need the boost in moral. She was an inspiration and always will be, & to this day I respect her with all my heart."

Maya D.

"The girls club is a wonderful place to empower girls to become leaders and confident about themselves. During my time, in the “Let’s be empowerment girls”, I was able to be myself, make friends, be happy and make a difference in people’s lives."

Vanessa B.

"Rachela is one of a kind. Her passion and drive in wanting to make a difference resonates with all girls she works with. Her encouragement and positive attitude towards life allows girls to dream big. She allows them to be strong, independent and fearless. 

Rachela is a great mentor, role model and facilitator.

- Lisa T,  Vice Principal

"Let’s Be empowered Girls club was one of the best high school memories that I can recall. I was one of our school’s team leaders where we organized fun activities to empower girls without insinuating that boys degrade women or make boys feel that they are to blame. And often times, the boys in our school would want to participate in these events and encourage our club. Girls club is a safe environment for young girls to come together during our meetings and speak about whatever came to their minds. Whether that may be laughing uncomfortably about something funny that happened during their day, talking about hair or beauty products, our favorite shows or just letting out a good cry. We created an environment that is completely confidential, and anything said in that moment is never repeated. We would host events to encourage friendship and kindness and teach young girls to work as a team rather than tear each other apart due to jealousy or trying to rip them apart. We encourage self-love and confidence and reminded each girl that it is not what’s on the outside that counts but what’s on the inside. One of our viral events was our friendship bracelets and Galantine’s Day Scrunchie fundraiser. These events were not only popular among the girls, but we found boys supporting us by wearing our friendship bracelets and buying our scrunchies for their mothers, sisters, girlfriends and believe it or not, their guy friends too! The meaning of Miss. Rachela’s girls club is to always have sisters around you; help bring up your self-confidence and to teach young girls that they decide what and who they should be and not society. Girls club has got me through some of my hardest times and gave me closure on certain situations in my life that I never thought I would get. Girls club allowed me to heal from a lot of rough patches in my life. I will be forever thankful for the opportunity and I suggest to all girls to join the group. 

Kayla A.

"The first time I walked into one of Rachela’s “Let’s Be Empowered” girl’s club meetings I remember thinking to myself: “Why didn’t I have any clubs like this when I was in High School?”

For one hour every week I watched a group of young women come together and uplift each other. I felt an unspoken solidarity between myself and these women even though none of them knew me that well yet. I was encouraged to speak my truth and be honest about what bothered me while also getting a chance to listen to other women and their words of encouragement for themselves and for me. I quickly realized that there are so many things that we as women go through that we don’t talk about nearly as much as we should; The need to be and feel perfect, the need to impress, the need to people please, the need to be beautiful… These were a few of the themes that I’ve always struggled with that also came up in these meetings. Rachela had this amazing ability to create a safe space for us to share what we were feeling and to receive support in the process. I quickly began to realize that we need more people like Rachela who are willing to go the extra mile to create these safe spaces for young girls. These spaces which encourage us to uplift ourselves and each other, to reach for the stars and to be unapologetically ourselves.

Every morning, I walked into Rachela’s office and read her wall filled with inspiring Post-It notes. This was my reminder that I could do and be anything. I still have my own Post-It wall filled with inspiring and uplifting quotes, which I modeled after hers.
For all these reasons, I am so grateful to have met someone like Rachela, an inspiring glow-getter mama who spreads empowerment and positivity to so many young girls like me who want to change the world."

Olivia - Colleague