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Baltimore, Maryland
2007
Life was a struggle for Paige Fitz, growing up in Sandtown. Her father overdosed when she was nine. Her mother had turned around her life and supported her children as a drug counselor. Yet, addiction had taken its toll, and just two years later, her mother died too. "For a long time, I was so mad at God," says Fitz, now 31. "I could not believe he took both of them." As a teenager, she always prayed for a child. "Something had been taken away from me, and I just needed something to love," she says. A single mom, Fitz had her first daughter when she was 20 and a second five years later.
But then, Fitz's mentor counseled her about her direction in life and helped her find inner strength. "That changed my whole world around," said Fitz, who will earn her bachelor's degree in accounting from Morgan State University in December 2009. "I finally had love for myself, but it took someone else to pull that out of me."
Fitz is using her fellowship to support GEMS - Finding Jewels in Youth, an effort she started to help young women ages 13 to 25 who face the same challenges she once did. In the spring, the young ladies held a big fashion show, raising $3,800 to support activities. In August, Fitz took 24 teen girls to Lake Champion camp in upstate New York, where they rode zip lines and go-karts and had a chance to escape city life. She will recruit 20 new GEMS members this fall, bringing the total to 40. Her fellowship has helped her recruit 50 mentors for the girls. "Now each girl will have a mentor," Fitz said. "They will meet with their mentors once a week. The mentors will pick them up from school, and they will do an activity together." Fitz is looking for building space to hold the weekly GEMS meetings. The girls are planning a production of the play Fitz wrote called "Esther in the Hood" in the winter.
Perhaps the biggest success, however, is the girls' expanded horizons. Previously, for the high school girls, "college wasn't in their vocabulary," says Fitz. "They would say, ‘After high school, I'll get a job.' " Fitz helped them research popular career interests and find appropriate schools. Today, most of the GEMS are seniors, and Fitz says: "98 percent are planning on college next fall."
