Some girls go for the dessert — last month’s was a tasty angel food cake topped in whipped cream and strawberries.
But Rachael Greenberg attends the all-girl, middle school power lunches on Brandeis Hillel Day School’s San Rafael campus for an entirely different reason.
“Sure the dessert is an extra bonus, but I think the real treat is the speaker coming in,” said Greenberg, a seventh-grader. “They take their time out of work and I should respect that.”
Greenberg was one of about 20 middle school girls taking part in the school’s most recent power lunch late last month with Kathleen Dughi, a jeweler in downtown Mill Valley.
Held almost monthly for the past four years, the lunchtime program is intended to provide students with an opportunity to meet women in a diverse array of professions, thereby exposing them to role models and inspiring them to think about their futures. The invitation to the power lunch is extended to the entire middle school female student body.
Greenberg, who wants to pursue a career in marketing or advertising and attends many of the power lunches, said she thinks the program is specifically for women since “boys already have so many role models to look up to.”
“We do Judaic studies [at Brandeis], and when you read the Bible it’s all about them, what they did. It’s important for girls to see a woman who had a goal and have a model to look up to,” she said.
Sixth-grader Elena Idell agreed, adding that since it was harder for women to get a job “in the olden days” than it is now, it is important to make sure that young girls are exposed to successful women.
Past speakers have included a firefighter with the San Francisco Fire Department, a sound editor from LucasFilm, a rancher, an actress and a creek biologist. Upcoming speakers include a make-up professional and an architect.
The women are not necessarily Jewish since “the most important thing is that they see women in a variety of careers and roles, whether Jewish or not,” said Barbara Garfein, one of the parents who was instrumental in starting the program four years ago.
Organizers of the lunches, such as parent Jayne Greenberg, try to find local women with no relationship or connection to the students, since those who are already well-known “don’t command the same attention,” said Garfein.
During the 40-minute lunch with Dughi, the jeweler shared tidbits about her training, described how she designs jewelry and explained what it has taken for her to run a successful business for the past 24 years.
“It was very cool,” said Idell. “She had really nice jewelry and it was cool to find out about her life and how she became a jeweler.”
This was the first, but not last power lunch for Idell, who aspires to be a photographer. She was particularly inspired by Dughi’s struggles on the path to becoming a jeweler.
“She had a tough teacher — who taught her how to design jewelry — he taught her things she would never have thought of. It wasn’t like she had a nice, easy teacher and it’s something she really learned from. It was a crucial point in her life.”
Seventh-grader Elana Levin was also intrigued by Dughi’s perseverance.
“I thought it was interesting that she worked so hard to be the best at her job,” she said. “She’s been to a lot of places to learn about jewelry designing, like Europe and all over, and she’s worked with a lot of professional people.”
Like Dughi, Levin, too, wants to be an artist and like Idell, possibly a photographer. She attends an art elective four times a week at Brandeis, which “I really like,” and also tries to pursue the craft on her own time.
This, however, was the first time that Levin and many of the other girls ever encountered a jewelry designer. Levin finds the profession “really interesting,” adding that the meeting “gave me more ideas about what I can do when I’m older.”