ALUMNI
Girls on the Run: Alumna at helm of growing nonprofit IT’S NOT OFTEN THAT SOMEONE looks at a job description and
decides it’s a perfect fit. But that’s what happened to Tina Jones, who earned her MS from the School of Education’s Administrative Leadership program, when a friend of a friend told her about a staff position at an organization called Girls on the Run. “When I read through what the program was, it was kind of like my ‘aha’ moment, finally feeling this is what I want to do with my life,” says Jones. Jones has been with Girls on the Run since 2012, helping the organization expand from 200 girls to more than 2,000 in southeastern Wisconsin. She is now executive director. At the time she heard about the position, she was the mother of three, an active volunteer in her children’s schools and a dedicated runner herself. A former All-American gymnast and triathlete, she’d taken up running to continue her athletic involvement. Jones had worked with her school’s PTO to create the Cupcake Run, a 5K event, as a way to bring the community together to promote health and wellness. “I had planned runs, but I had 20 UWM SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
never been truly in the nonprofit world and I didn’t know what I didn’t know, so there was really a big learning curve,” she says. The mission of Girls on the Run is empowering young girls from third through eighth grades through life lessons to become “joyful, healthy and confident.” The girls take part in 20 sessions. “What I love about this organization is that we are there to build strong girls and look at the whole girl,” Jones says. “It’s not just the physical component of things, it’s the emotional component and the social component.” The first lessons focus on helping the girls see themselves as special and unique, and helping them understand peer pressure and bullying and how to talk about and deal with those issues. “Once the girls have talked about themselves and why they’re special, then the talk moves into why you need to be kind and appreciate the uniqueness of others,” says Jones. And yes, she adds, there is running, but the organization – despite the name – is more about the journey and working hard toward an end goal. Although the sessions end with a joyful 5K run to celebrate
