During the week of July 26th to August 2, The Hal and Barbara Jones Foundation completed its first annual Student Mentoring Program, a subset of the annual "A New You" women's retreat at Brigham Young University Hawaii. After 12 years of the "A New You" retreat, director Barbara Barrington Jones organized a similar program for BYUH students and community members geared toward younger interests.
Barbara Barrington Jones [pictured below] is a former professional ballet dancer, fashion designer, businesswoman, author, speaker, and image consultant. She explains that both her women's program and student mentoring program are the fulfillment of a dream to create a camp "where women could come and feel better about themselves" and to find "more of the balance in life."
As one of the original members of the BYUH President's Leadership Council, Jones explained, "When President Wheelwright asked what can you do for my students I thought I'm going to do something and do something good...How about if they learn to do interviews...how to dress to look their best, how to walk in for an interview, how to sit, and where to put their hands." The purpose of the program is to prepare students for the job world, to be prepared for interviews, and for life in general. "No fluff stuff," as Jones puts it. "We're not teaching fluffy stuff. We're teaching you how to compete in this job market by developing a balance in your life: mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional...It isn't about being a model or about being a beauty queen, it's about reaching your potential."
To appeal to a younger audience, Jones recruited an entirely new faculty for the program, all of which volunteered their time and paid their own way. Through a week of classes open to BYU-H students as well as young women from the community, students had multiple opportunities to attend classes that focused on the challenges young adults face in school, life, and in entering the work world. Approaching issues from both a sacred as well as a secular perspective, faculty taught one thing in common: being a daughter of God. "The most beautiful person in the world is filled with the light of Christ and that's what makes her beautiful," explained Jones.
Each of the 5 core classes reinforced this theme through each area of expertise. Core classes included Fashion, Skin Care & Makeup, Health & Fitness, Visual Poise & Etiquette, and Time Management & Organization.
Instructor of the Visual Poise and Etiquette class, Heather Osmond [pictured at right], taught, "We are not expected to be a certain size or shape. Our Heavenly Father loves us just the way we are...There's not a perfect way to do our hair or a perfect way to sit or a perfect way to hold our hands." Heather also explained that as a faculty, "we're just here to give you ideas and ways that you can improve upon yourself and build your confidence and know that as a daughter of our Heavenly Father, you can go and you can do anything that you want to."
Samantha Thee, a young woman from the community, said about the faculty, "I liked how they would incorporate the gospel into everyday things that we should know. It really brings it home."
"These things are crucial," Jones explained concerning the class subjects. "They're in everything in life...It's just so crucial to make that impression and feel confident in yourself. If you're truly confident in yourself it shows everywhere...it comes from Christ. When we came to this earth, we had 100% self esteem but it's the world who chips away at us...you have to know you are a daughter of God."
Diane Workman [pictured at left], Fashion class lecturer, explained that their purpose as a faculty was to "give students every advantage to become the people that they are meant to be...It's important for them to feel good about themselves so they're confident enough to go out and get these jobs and be prepared to go out and make this difference in the world...When you feel good about yourself, you project yourself in a whole different way. Just by doing some of these little things - learning about skin care or wearing the right color - when you look in the mirror before you leave you just feel a little bit better about yourself, you'll treat others differently, you'll act differently, you'll walk differently, you'll smile more because you learned to love yourself."
Instructor of the Skin Care & Makeup class, Betty Turley [pictured at right], said, "As things come to [the students] from things that are out there...they're going to have the basis of the knowledge to go forward...to become the best women we can be, to become better educated, to become a people that others look upon us and say I want to be just like that."
Jones compared women to temples, how immaculate the temple grounds are kept, and the peace that surrounds them. "We have to have the whole package," she said, "how are [others] going to want to know what's on the inside if the outside isn't appealing?"
"That's one thing we're trying to stress in this program is to realize who they are," Workman said. "Anybody who wants to improve themselves so they can have any advantage as they graduate, I think we have something here in this program to give them a little upper edge...to be the best they can be." Kami Davis, an ICS - Communications major, remarked, "I love how Sister Workman emphasized how women who know who they are have an ultimate power. They're going to go out and do great things."
Jones really stressed the importance of these skills in the work world. "You may be drop dead gorgeous with no makeup on but this is a business you're interviewing for. You need to look professional and there is a look that is professional...It's what I call refinement in appearance. It's the polish, the icing on the cake..."
Approaching visual poise from both a practical side, stressing interviewing skills, as well as a spiritual side, Heather Osmond explained, "We are teaching basic life skills...the basics of walking and talking and sitting and standing and how it relates to being a daughter of our Heavenly Father and the expectations that we have as Latter-day Saint women to dress modestly and to present ourselves in the best way possible...being confident and feeling good about ourselves is so important." Jones also supported the importance of etiquette in saying, "Manners are not optional...[they are] something that convey who you are.
Including a great deal of one-on-one interaction, classes were small and extremely individualized so that students could learn what works best for them from a highly experienced and trained individual. "The subjects that we teach are correct principles," said Turley. "[Students] can come at whatever level they are and learn things that are usable throughout their life." Amanda Stranton, another young woman from the community, recalled a quote mentioned in one of the classes and remarked, "You need to try your best to look as good as you can but once you get out the door you should serve others. You still want to look nice and it definitely affects how you act - the way you look. If you dress for success then you'll be successful."
In discussing the importance of the Health and Fitness class taught by Jared Osmond [pictured at right], Jones said, "Unless you take care of your body and eat right you're not going to have energy. You're not going to be an excellent employee because you're going to be tired and grouchy all the time." Bonnie Clark also taught the importance of life skills in the work place in her time management class as she referenced a statistic stating that 90 percent of businessmen said that time management would be the most important capability for employees.
Bonnie Clark teaches Time Management & Organization
Jones also invited students to attend devotionals, seminars, and discussions that were offered as a part of the concurrent "A New You" program. Such events included a seminar on motivation by Darin Knowles as well as a discussion on defining yourself through appearance lead by Chieko Okazaki [pictured below].
Grateful for the decision to let students participate in the program, student Kami Davis said, "The classes were excellent! I would definitely recommend them to every woman." Davis was also extremely impressed with the quality of faculty available. "The way the faculty hold themselves and present themselves, they are reinforcing what they are teaching." TESOL education major, Boo Yoon Choi, was also grateful for the wealth of knowledge available to her at such low price while Natassia Machado, Political Science Major from Brazil, remarked, "I think we can learn a lot about the stories that they tell because they've had experience with other people that are not students."
The faculty and mentors appreciated interaction with the students as well and are excited to return for future programs, which Jones plans to coordinate. "It means so much to me to be part of your ohana and to feel welcome here," said Jones. "I come here and I feel the aloha from all of the students and I love all of them and I want to be a part of them."