People Behind BIO | Anna Marohl
Anna Marohl
Site Director, Abercrombie, ND
Meet Anna Marohl, a BIO Girls site director completely dedicated to the mission of BIO Girls and young girls empowerment. As a teacher, she sees the struggles that children face every day while they are growing into their own identities. For her daughters, Anna makes sure that they are empowered and supported like all BIO Girls, even though they are too young to join the program!
Read more about Anna below!
What is your connection to BIO Girls?
Site Director at the Abercrombie, ND site.
How long have you been involved with BIO Girls?
My third season started Tuesday the 7th!
What was like to start this new season?
It was tricky to start our season, because for some of the girls this was the first time seeing anyone outside their family in a while. We did a lot of prepping the girls on safety, like why we can't give hugs to our friends. We walked through some different options for the girls to interact safely. I'm a teacher, so I know how important being together is for their mental health and social skills.
The first lesson is about how we are all unique and a part of a big picture, and we were talking about being grateful in our reflection piece. I think every single one of the girls said they were grateful and excited to see their friends and be a part of this. I was tearing up listening to them because it's so important for them to be together. We were hesitating on running the site (because of the COVID-19 requirements) but I am so grateful we did it because the girls clearly need BIO Girls.
What drew you to become involved with BIO Girls?
My husband and I were running in the Fargo 5K about five years ago, and we saw all the BIO Girls with their white shirts on. I honestly thought it was a science thing at first! We were running in the race and I saw all of these people in the stands cheering and I told my husband, "I don't know what this is, I want my children to be involved" because of the fact that some of them could not have been older than ten years old running a 5K, having all of these people cheering for them. Then, we were running behind this group of BIO Girls and then they started picking up garbage! They would not pass by a cup or napkin on the ground without finding a trash can to throw it in.
After the race, I started looking around and noticed that it was everywhere on my social media, I had just never noticed it before. I was prepared to come to Fargo every week just to be involved. I reached out to a friend of mine and asked her how to set up a site. All it took was me emailing Missy to get a site set up in Wahpeton for our first year. It's obviously grown since then, increasing the impact it's having on our young girls in schools right now and what they need.
The BIO Girls mission is "to improve the self-esteem of adolescent girls through empowerment of self and service to others." How do you resonate with the mission?
The mission of BIO Girls resonates with me because I struggled with self-esteem as a young girl and I want different for girls today. I want girls to believe and know that God created them on purpose and for a purpose - that we are unique and that our differences should be respected and valued. We are all unique and have special things to offer.
As a teacher, I see the struggle that girls face with the constant stream of social media telling them what they should look like, act like, and be and it has brought the struggle of comparison to children at a much younger age. We have an opportunity to share a message that is different than what they see through social media. A message that can change the culture in our schools and communities.
Do you have an impact story from your involvement with BIO Girls?
In our first year, we had a 4th-grade girl in my co-director's (Janelle Berseth) small group who was very quiet and not participating at all. Janelle was not a teacher and didn't know how to connect and help this girl, so she thought about moving her to a different group. I told her that she should stick it out because I could tell that this girl just needed some time. It was about six weeks into the program before the girl switched like a light, started participating, and let her guard down. She has been a part of the program ever since and keeps up regular contact with Janelle. We realized that she needed people to not give up on her. It's what happens to her all the time, she puts up a front that she doesn't care, and eventually people will move her on. We just had to remind her that we wouldn't give up on her.
What do you do for work?
Right now I teach first graders in Wyndmere. The year that I saw the most need for BIO Girls was when I was teaching second graders. You hear about what the girls are going through, but I saw it up close. I started to see so many of them having access to social media and how it negatively affects them. Women deal with comparison issues all of our lives, and I saw these girls starting that at eight years old. I was surprised as a parent and as a teacher about what they see and what they think they need to be like. I didn't realize the power of BIO Girls' message and its importance. It connected me so much deeper to the program.
Did you have a favorite lesson that you found value in?
The first lesson is my favorite because it is so important for girls to know that they are unique. It's a message that I teach my own daughters. As a teacher, a lesson I teach my students is the world would be so boring if we were all the same, that "we are all different, we are all unique, it's ok that we do not like the same things." We all have special things to offer. That's how we fit together. That's how we come together to make the world around us a better place, by offering those unique things we have about ourselves. So often we want to conform and don't want to stand out. We need that belief in ourselves that it is okay to be different. All of the lessons are super important, and I believe in them all, but that one is my favorite.
What changes have you seen in the girls you have mentored?
I see girls who are learning what it means to give back to their community.
I see girls building relationships with other girls and with women in their communities that they may not have done before because they didn't have the opportunity to meet them or work with someone they didn't know.
I see girls having deeper conversations about friendship, respect, kindness, differences, and how to include others.
I see girls asking questions about these same things in a place they feel safe and they are open to learning."
In one sentence, how do you summarize what BIO Girls provides participants?
A safe place to learn more about themselves.
Mentoring is a big commitment. Why is it worth it to you?
It is worth it to me because I believe that if we truly want change in our schools and communities we need to be an active part of that change. Being a mentor gives me an opportunity to be a part of the lives of young girls that my own daughters will interact with.
I want to be a safe adult in the lives of these children. Being a mentor has also given me an opportunity to learn and grow not only as a leader but as a woman, as a mom, as a friend.
What is one thing that surprised you about BIO Girls?
The impact it would have on me. I have always been passionate about this message, but I didn’t realize how I would be impacted. Also, bringing in a team of mentors and watching them impact the girls that are in our community surprised me. To see all of these amazing women who aren’t normally in the circumstances to share these messages, here they are volunteering their time to make the world a better place. I learn from them how to communicate with the girls and with adults, different ways to lead. Our site has done a really nice job of allowing others to lead lessons. Sometimes I just sit back and listen to them teach.
If you could go back in time, what year would it be and why?
I would go back to my middle school years. I would tell myself to relax and be who you are and not try to please everyone else.
What is the last book you read? Would you recommend it?
Five Second Rule by Mel Robbins. It's about just deciding and doing, within that first five seconds. Not talking yourself out of things, when you make a decision you just count down from five and go.
Thank you, Anna, for your years of dedication to the BIO Girls mission.
Learn more about how you can get involved!