Nearing the completion of its fourth full year in the district, the Revere High School Glass Ceiling group hopes to prepare its students for their future educations and careers.

RHS created the group at the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year through the Cuyahoga Valley Career Center (CVCC), which has helped to implement similar programs in several other local school districts. The phrase “glass ceiling” is a metaphorical representation of the barrier which bars women in the professional workplace from reaching certain opportunities within their chosen career field. Kathy Dombrowski, the Revere district career resource specialist at CVCC and the program’s adviser, explained the club’s purpose.

“The purpose of the club is to examine issues facing professional women, to expose the members to positive role-models, positive professional speakers and other women in leadership positions, to promote leadership skills and to provide the group with practical information [and] advice to help them as they go forward in their education, career and life,” Dombrowski said.

Each year, the RHS guidance staff recommends students to Dombrowski, who then distributes invitations to join the group; the students may accept or decline the offer. Dombrowski spoke of the qualities that the club looks for in potential members.

“We are looking for young women that demonstrate a positive attitude and motivation, [that] show potential leadership ability [and those who are] ‘good’ students in their effort, persistence and drive to do the best that they can,” Dombrowski said.

The group’s meetings involve viewing presentations from a variety of female speakers in career fields that club members have expressed interest in pursuing. Each presentation lasts for about forty minutes, in which Dombrowski asks the speakers to share their unique career paths and stories and helpful advice for the group. This year’s presenters have included Kit Harpley, a physician’s assistant; Dr. Julia Papouras, a pediatrician; Emily Koly, a graphic designer; and Catherine Sturik Gambill, an attorney.

Senior Victoria Deng has been a member of the Glass Ceiling group for two years. She shared her motivation for joining the club and the aspect of the club that she enjoys most.

“I was inspired to join to learn more about women’s lives in the modern world and about what kind of roles we have in society . . . . My favorite aspect [of the club] is learning about the obstacles that women with careers face and how their struggles relate to young women like myself. One main purpose of the club is to help guide and advise us as women who will potentially face similar issues in our careers in the future,” Deng said.

Though the club is mostly composed of and for students, staff members may also attend presentations. RHS librarian Cynthia Gobrogge has attended numerous meetings since the group’s beginning. She voiced her opinion of the group’s significance.

“I think that the group itself really fulfills its mission in giving girls that real-world experience from people in the field as far as what they have done in order to be successful in their careers, but also the hurdles that they have had to overcome because of being a female in their chosen career path. . . . I think the speakers do a really good job of giving practical advice to the students about education, and about being a professional, and about how to really balance work and life. They get multiple perspectives from different women about not only career paths, but also about being a woman in their career field and about potentially having a family, how that affects being a working professional and how that brings a different set of challenges for a female versus being a man in the same career,” Gobrogge said.

The Glass Ceiling club meets in the RHS library’s IDL room once a month. Current members include seniors Deng, Ally Dutkiewicz, Jacquelyn Perrott, Leah Weisburn and Meredith Zendlo; and juniors Calissa Amato, Amanda Cross, Grace Godard, Breanna Greenfield, Tiarra Lucas, Lisa Nester, Lauren Price, Madison Ray, Sophia Saluppo and Carmen Solitt. The group’s last meeting of the year will take place in April.