Kelly Fair
Polished Pebbles
Women’s Mentorship Program Gives Chicago Girls A Better Future
Happy Wednesday Golden Divas!
Our Fair Lady: The Beautiful Iron Rod!
March is Women’s History Month – commemorating and encouraging the study, observance, and celebration of women’s vital role in American history. So, what better month to continue to celebrate another fabulous woman. This Golden Diva is worth highlighting due to all of the great work she does in the community and abroad. It gives me great pleasure to welcome this beautiful gem to Club Fifty!
“There’s nothing like a woman taking a young girl under her wings to mentor her into greatness” Brenda McCain
When I think of my next guest here at Club Fifty, I think of Proverbs 27:17 “iron sharpens iron.”
Just as the scripture states, it tells us to sharpen each other: “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another,” and that is exactly what this young woman is doing.
God has placed on her heart to encourage, coach, guide, and mentor young girls in their path of life.
She has been mentored since the age of 13 by some compelling women in her life. These women in her village helped to polish her to become the dynamic woman she is today. When she became an adult, she knew it was her time to give back and mentor young girls, primarily through those gap years of not feeling confident.
Every person is given a gift from God; once you know what it is, it is up to you to manifest it into fruition. Your life may be going in a different direction, and you may feel you don’t have the skills to do what you’re called to do (or maybe you do). Just remember, God doesn’t call the qualified He qualifies the called.
This Golden Diva has answered her calling, and her assignment here on earth to be a trusted mentor is shining brightly. She has opened her heart and arms to so many young girls, sharing information about her career path, providing guidance, motivation, emotional support, and role modeling.
I enjoyed meeting this Golden Diva six years ago; I had always admired her great works as a mentor to our young girls. She was a guest on our radio show, Let’s Stay Together Talk, and a guest on our show when we hosted it on CanTV. Her warm spirit and knowledge extend beyond her years, and it has garnered her the opportunity to open up a girl’s mentoring program.
Polished Pebbles, an Illinois Gold Star-rated mentoring program, is a Chicago-based mentoring initiative that increases young women’s communication skills and employability for the future workplace. Polished Pebbles helps girls ages 7-17 become effective communicators at home, school, and their future careers.
This future Golden Diva has been featured in Ebony magazine, The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, The Chicago Sun-Times, and Chicago Woman magazine. She’s also been a guest on The Kelly Clarkson Show. Her book, “They’re All The Same Girl,” about her journey working with girls and building her highly regarded girls mentoring program, is available online.
Golden Divas, help me welcome the girl from Chicago who wanted to make a difference. The dynamic Kelly Fair, the founder and executive director of Polished Pebbles, saw a need to help young girls communicate, have a great first impression, shine, and be successful in life because it matters.
“The best things in life are simple and timeless” Kelly Fair
MEET KELLY FAIR
Kelly Fair is 35+ years old; she is in a committed relationship with an awesome man who is also a servant leader. She is a Johnnie Colemon baby and long-life member of Christ Universal Temple; her hobbies include traveling and outdoor exploring and workouts. Kelly is a Mamala” like our VP! A mom figure to lots of girls she mentors.
She is the Founder and Executive Director of the Reflections Foundation and the Polished Pebbles Girls Mentoring Program. These non-profit organizations enhance the life skills, career readiness, and leadership ability of girls and young women. She is the author of They’re All the Same Girl, and Every Girl is a CEO. Kelly is an award-winning social entrepreneur and sought-after speaker who advocates for girls, women, mentoring, and workforce pipelining.
Since launching Polished Pebbles in 2009 in Chicago, Kelly’s signature communications and job readiness programming have expanded from elementary-age girls to high schools, college programs, families, prominent women leaders, and Chicagoland sites, Northwest Indiana, Dallas, Texas, and North Carolina. The program, which started with two mentees, has now engaged more than 4,000 girls and 500 mentors across 100 different program sites and has raised $2MM+ for partnering schools and communities.
Kelly’s work on behalf of girls and young women has earned recognition from Bank of America,
ComEd, Verizon, Google, Duke University, Chicago Foundation for Women, DuSable Museum of African American History, Social Enterprise Alliance, and more.
She currently serves on the U.S. Congressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls Taskforce, the Harold Washington College President’s Advisory Board, and the Illinois Council for Women and Girls.
Kelly is a graduate of Howard University and the University of Iowa, with honors. She is a true “south side girl” and lives in Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood.
Learn more about Kelly Fair at kellykaefair.com
Follow Kelly on social media: @kfairthemento
“You can’t be, what you can’t see” Marian Wright Edelman
Pipelining Black Women & Girls into Trades & Manufacturing!
IN CONVERSATION WITH KELLY FAIR
Welcome to Club Fifty’s Circle of Sisterhood.
C50: Tell us about your passion for mentoring young girls and how you derived to get there?
KF: My passion is helping to empower girls of color to prepare for future careers and success in life. Growing up, my great-grandmother mentored young women in my neighborhood. She and other mentors I had along the way inspired me to give back and help empower young women and the next generation. While I enjoyed my corporate job in publishing, I missed that component of directly impacting my community. These experiences inspired me to start the Polished Pebbles Girls Mentoring Program in 2009.
C50: Who in your community helped to polish you to become the woman you are today? Who was your mentor, and how have they influenced you?
KF: My great-grandmother, Maggie Peoples, helped me grow into the woman that I am today. She was an usher at our church for 63 years, and was the epitome of volunteering and giving back to the community, and mentored young women in my neighborhood. I also grew up in Christ Universal Temple under Rev. Dr. Johnnie Colemon’s tutelage, who was a pioneering female minister. These women and their models for giving back and empowering others inspired me to work to uplift young women in my community.
C50:Talk to C50 about the fabulous Polished Pebbles Girls’ Mentoring Program. 
KF: Polished Pebbles is a Chicago-based girl mentoring program. We focus on enhancing the girls’ communication skills at home, school, and the future workplace. We strive to expose them to networking opportunities and encourage them to build their mentoring program’s skill set. Despite the pandemic, we have continued to provide a wide variety of virtual mentoring and career readiness programming for girls at our school sites and the broader community of young ladies and their mothers through our Mommy & Me programing. This past summer, we also hosted our first virtual Every Girl is a CEO Conference for 75 young women in Chicago and across the nation.
C50: What are some of the solutions that Polished Pebbles offer for young girls?
KF: Our mentoring programming focuses on the three C’s: communication, career exploration, and community. In light of the pandemic, we have pivoted to hosting all of our in-school and after-school sessions virtually. Polished Pebbles’ core 15-25 week mentoring program occurs at 25 schools throughout the Chicagoland area and Indiana each year. We also offer after-school and weekend programming for the broader community of girls and their mothers through our Mommy & Me Program, which provides yearlong programming to girls and their mothers, allowing them to bond while building career and entrepreneurship skills through career panels, masterclasses led by industry leaders, mentoring sessions, and a summer initiative. We have also continued to host our Second Saturday’s mentoring program, which provides career readiness and networking opportunities for girls and mentors from a diverse range of professions and industries.
C50: Talk to C50 about the PP Pink Hard Hats, careers in trades.
KF: I developed the Pink Hard Hats initiative to address Chicago’s African American and Latina girls’
workforce readiness needs and the existing barriers to girls and women of color in the trades. Polished Pebbles’ Pink Hard Hats program introduces girls to careers in the trades and provides them with skills training and job shadow experiences while in middle school and high school. We partner with industry leaders to provide career panels, guest speakers, job shadow experiences, and internships to form a school to career pipeline and prepare girls for early integration into the skilled trades workforce. Some of our partners for this initiative include Turner Construction, Milhouse Engineering & Construction, Mechanical Contractors Association of Chicago, Chicago Women in Trades, and She Builds.
C50: How do you balance your work and home life?
KF: I enjoy workouts and being outdoors as much as possible to take care of my physical health, mental health, and overall wellbeing. I have worked out with black-owned gym groups that really form a community, like 360 Mind Body Soul and Mettle Fitness in the Bronzeville community. I enjoy a rich family life as the oldest of five children and downtime with my significant other, who supports my work and my passions.
C50: Kelly, are there any significant events coming up soon for Polished Pebbles?
KF: We are beginning to plan for our Pink Hard Hats career panels at many of our school sites in
March, which introduces our girls to careers in STEM and the trades. As a part of this program, women who hold varying jobs in the trades, manufacturing, construction, and engineering virtually participate in our mentoring sessions to discuss job opportunities within the industry and their personal career experiences.
On March 13, we are partnering with Nokia to host a Masterclass in Technology as part of our Second Saturday’s programming. This is part of our new masterclass initiative for girls and their mothers, taking place virtually every month. This year, our first Masterclass featured Stephanie Luster, President of Essations, Inc., and was focused on careers in the beauty industry. Our second Masterclass was with real estate expert Carlas Prince Gilbert, the owner and managing broker of Prince Reality. Be sure to follow us on social media @polishedpebbles to stay informed about future events!
C50: Do you have any inspiring books to suggest that would help young girls with their assurance and direction about their future? (talk about your two books).
KF: After 11 years of working with Polished Pebbles, I realized the girls needed a blueprint to help them turn their dreams into reality. This inspired me to write Every Girl is a CEO, the first and only career and success guide for girls of color. CEO life is not just about being in a Fortune 500 company. I believe that our girls are CEOs right now! Whether they are braiding hair to make money, working an after-school job, or juggling extracurricular activities, they already express CEO behavior.
My first book, They’re All the Same Girl, is a literary guide where I share my journey working with our girls and continuing to grow the Polished Pebbles program. The book offers personal testimonies from volunteers and program staff and includes candid community
conversations to inspire readers to achieve personal and professional success.
Both books can be purchased on our website: https://polishedpebbles.com/books/.
C50: What are some invaluable lessons girls can learn from Polished Pebbles?
KF: Polished Pebbles taps into the potential of each girl and encourages them to do their best. We want the girls to believe that anything is possible. As part of our mentoring program, the girls will gain business, networking, and communication skills. In addition to learning soft and hard skills, our girls can connect with other young women their age and form lifelong friendships. The Polished Pebbles experience provides girls with the necessary tools to become confident and self-sufficient. Everything the girls learn from the program benefits them in their personal and professional lives.
C50: What is the best advice you can give to help plan a career rather than work to keep a job for a young girl?
KF: By being a powerful girl, you are already a CEO. When I was a girl, my dad told me that going to school was my job! So, going to school is also your job and your business. You have lots of the same responsibilities and characteristics as the women and girls who are CEOs and leaders. You are the boss of making sure you do your best.
Bonus Question
C50: How can parents connect with you so that their daughters can be a part of this great
organization?
KF: You can do the following
- Sign up for the Polished Pebbles newsletter to get Polished Pebbles updates and learn about other virtual events for girls and moms throughout the month!
- Follow us on social media @polishedpebbles to learn of future events and programming. You can find us on Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
- You can learn more about our work and mission to empower girls and young women by visiting our website, www.polishedpebbles.com.
C50: There you have it Golden Divas, this beautiful gem is helping to mode our future divas into greatness!! Her mentorship is a blessing to black and brown girls. She is preparing them to become the CEOs that they were meant to be in this world! Thank You, Kelly fair!
