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# University Heights Students Meet Women Mentors at Day of the Girl Event
- URL: https://www.raincrossgazette.com/university-heights-students-meet-women-mentors-at-day-of-the-girl-event/
- Published: 2026-10-21T00:15:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-21T00:14:59.000Z
- Description: State Sen. Sabrina Cervantes and a Riverside County judge were among the speakers at the Boys & Girls Clubs gathering in Fairmount Park.
- Author: Gazette Staff
- Tags: community, #herald-3feef165-d2ee-81ce-8cb7-c044bd9135b5

Twenty girls from University Heights Middle School spent the afternoon of Oct. 14 with women working in law, science, sports, the arts and local government at a mentorship event hosted by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Redlands-Riverside (BGCGRR) at the boathouse in Fairmount Park.

The event marked International Day of the Girl and was built around career exploration, with students hearing directly from women about how they got where they are. The organization described it as the first Day of the Girl mentorship event of its kind in the Inland Empire.

State Sen. Sabrina Cervantes, who represents Senate District 31, was one of the keynote speakers.

“Modeling strong female leadership to these young students is paramount to our collective futures,” Cervantes said in a statement. “I was so proud to be present with them and remind them that their voices deserve to be heard and their dreams are worth pursuing.”

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b3/b2/b3b29e3b-298e-485f-86ca-3034c21e3784/content/images/2026/10/101426-Intl-Day-of-the-Girl-KP77-Medium.jpeg)

State Sen. Sabrina Cervantes speaks at a Day of the Girl mentorship event at the Fairmount Park boathouse on Oct. 14\. | Photo courtesy of Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Redlands-Riverside

Mentors and panelists included Riverside County Superior Court Judge Sophia Choi; Kendall Reusing, an eight-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion; Stephanie Standerfer, vice president and director of environmental services at WEBB Associates; illustrator and graphic designer Aracely Muñoz; Bansree Parikh, a market executive with JP Morgan; and Jessica Brown, BGCGRR’s vice president of resource development.

Each woman talked about her own career path, including setbacks, speaking up for herself and building a support network.

Choi said in a statement that hearing about different careers can introduce students to paths they had never considered, and that it “helps make dreams become goals and goals become reality.”

Students also made vision boards with their mentors, mapping out goals for the future, and met in small groups to ask the women about their careers and the challenges they faced along the way.

The club said the program targets middle school girls because of research showing that girls’ confidence drops by about 30 percent between ages 8 and 14, a gap it says can carry into adulthood.

“I wanted our girls to see that there isn’t just one path to success,” Brown said in a statement. “The women who joined us represented so many different professions and backgrounds, but they all had something in common: their lives didn’t necessarily turn out the way they expected.”

Brown added that she hopes the event is the first of many opportunities to connect girls across the Inland Empire with mentors.

The event was sponsored by Clark Construction, Molina Healthcare, San Bernardino County Supervisor Dawn Rowe and Riverside County Supervisor Karen Spiegel.

Founded in 1967, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Redlands-Riverside offers before- and after-school programs, camps, daily hot meals and mentoring. The organization says it has served more than 15,000 young people across the Inland Empire.

**For more information:* Karli Maxfield, marketing manager, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Redlands-Riverside, 909-953-5130 or kmaxfield@bgcie.org. More about the club is at begreatie.org.*