Ann Quasman's WomanTalkLive A more conscious conversation

This Week on WomanTalk Live: “Building Families That Transcend Barriers” with Sarah Hemminger

Sarah Hemminger

In the spring of 2004, Sarah Hemminger, a JHU biomedical engineering graduate student, and her husband, Ryan Hemminger, founded Incentive Mentoring Program (IMP) to create mentoring relationships between university-based volunteers and underperforming high school students who were at risk of failing to graduate.

Starting in the East Baltimore neighborhood in which Sarah attended graduate school, the program began by building relationships between Paul Laurence Dunbar High School (Dunbar) students, and volunteers from the JHU East Baltimore Campus. The principal of Dunbar, Roger Shaw, helped identify 15 students who were at severe risk of failing to complete high school.

Through their willingness to customize their approach to the unique needs of each student, volunteers developed close relationships with the students over the next three years.

In the spring of 2007, 100% of this first group of students not only graduated high school, but were also accepted and matriculated to college. As word of IMP’s success spread, what started out as an intimate student group of a few dozen friends, quickly turned into an organization of several hundred volunteers.

The Incentive Mentoring Program is successful because it builds families that transcend barriers by recognizing that everyone brings something of value to the table.  Everyone is a mentor.  Everyone is a mentee.  And, everyone wins.

Tune in this week when I talk with Sarah Hemminger to find out more about this “making a real difference” organization and the people who are making it happen.

Saturday, May 18^th, from 6:07-7:00 pm ET on Talkradio 680 WCBM Baltimore or “Listen Live” online 

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Be sure to check out last week’s show – What YOU Can Do to Tackle Our Nation’s Leading Killer of Women – when I talked with Shannon Winakur, M.D., Medical Director of the Women’s Heart Center at Saint Agnes Hospital, and Debbie Phelps, Director of The Education Foundation of Baltimore County Public Schools, about women and heart disease.  Regardless of your age, it’s time to get “HEART SMART.”

If you missed the show or you want to share it with a friend, it’s in the podcast archive now – It’s the May 11^th show!

WTL Wrap-Up: “What YOU Can Do to Tackle Our Nation’s Leading Killer of Women”

Dr. Shannon Winakur, Ann and Debbie Phelps

In an effort to educate women of all ages about the biggest threat to our good health,  Shannon Winakur, M.D., Medical Director of the Women’s Heart Center at Saint Agnes Hospital, and Debbie Phelps, Director of  The Education Foundation of Baltimore County Public Schools, who has a busy, busy life, joined me in the studio this past week to share the facts that heart disease and all it entails is not just a disease for old men.

Why do women need to be aware of this threat and get “heart smart” at an early age?  Because only a minority of women view heart disease as a threat and an overwhelming number of women – of all ages -  are leading lives with big risk factor behaviors.

When stroke, heart failure and high blood pressure are included with coronary heart disease… these diseases kill one woman every minute in the U.S. 

The good thing about knowing the symptoms and your own risk factors?  You can then do something – often, only making some lifestyle changes – that will add years to your life and give you a quality life.  And, that may mean you’re able to walk or ride bikes with your children.  It may mean that you’re able to get up the stairs without huffing and puffing.  It may mean that all of the people who love you get to enjoy you for a long time.

Dr. Winakur and Debbie Phelps encourage women as young as twenty – and, younger, if symptoms are present – to get heart smart.  One way to do that is by scheduling your 60-Minute Heart Check. 

And, after you schedule your appointment?  Get all the women you love to do the same thing.  Spread the word of good heart health.

If you missed the show or you want to share it with a friend, it will be posted in the podcast archive later on this week.  It’s the May 11^th show.

WTL Wrap-Up: “Love Saves the Day – How the Love of an Animal Can Make Us All Better Humans”

   
Gwen Cooper                          Andrea Hylen

For anyone who has ever had a pet, you know what the unconditional love from that animal can do for you.  It’s a pure love that we hope to replicate in our relationships with other humans.

My guest this week, Gwen Cooper, the New York Time’s bestselling author of  Homer’s Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned About Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat, joined me and my guest co-host, Andrea Hylen, to talk about her latest book, Love Saves the Day. 

The hour just flew by as three cat lovers shared their animal stories, and appreciated the fictional story that Gwen wove around Prudence, the cat, and the mother and daughter who had been estranged for years.

Love Saves the Day is a novel for anyone who’s ever lost a loved one, wondered what their cat was really thinking, or fallen asleep with a purring feline nestled in their arms.  It’s a real story of love lost and love found, and one that you and any pet owner will “get”.  I daresay it will touch the heart of anyone who picks it up.

In the end we all know that love truly can save the day.

If you missed the show or you want to share it with a friend, it will be posted in the podcast archive later on this week.  It’s the May 4th show.

WTL Wrap-Up: “5 Secrets to Relationship Survival After Children”

Bob Hollander, Ann, Lori Hollander &
Tori Maith

I have to admit, raising cats sounds a whole lot easier.  That’s why I’m in awe of all of the women I know who have raised children and lived to tell about it… and, even laugh about it.  How brave to take that step and bring a bundle of joy into the world.  But, our topic this past week was not on raising children…it was on what happens to the relationship between the parents after the children come.

Joining me to talk with our guests, Lori and Bob Hollander of Relationships Work, was my guest co-host, Tori Maith, the former WomanTalk Live producer who is now expecting her first child.  So, she certainly had questions and comments about what she’s experienced already and what she has to look forward to.

From being parents themselves and from working with countless couples who have relationship challenges for all sorts of reasons, Lori and Bob discussed the physical, the emotional and the lifestyle challenges that happen from Day 1 and how these challenges impact a couple’s relationship over the years

More importantly, they covered what they believe to be the five secrets to avoid the relationship rut and the awareness couples need to bring into their overall relationship.

Nobody said raising kids, having a family and having a loving relationship would be easy.  But, it’s so incredibly rewarding when both partners are on board together from the start.

If you missed the show or you want to share it with a friend, it will be posted in the podcast archive later on this week.  It’s the April 27^th show.

WTL Wrap-Up: “Changing Lives. Changing Communities. – Women Build”

Cynthia Wiggins, Ann, Staci Summers & Shanita Modlin

National Women Build Week, sponsored by Lowe’s, is coming up May 4^th-12^th and challenges women to devote at least one day during that time period to help eliminate poverty housing.  The Women Build program exists to enable U.S. and international affiliates of Habitat for Humanity to recruit, educate and nurture women to build – and advocate for – simple, decent and affordable houses in their communities.

Joining me in the studio this past week were three women who are passionate about the work being done by our local Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake and the Women Build Program, as well as all of the national and international affiliates of Habitat.

Staci Summers, the consummate volunteer, started volunteering in college and has continued volunteering with Habitat in every city she has lived in.  Not only that, she is now a Leader for the Global Village program and has worked on projects in India, Kenya, and Nepal – with more to come.   This year, she is an advisory board member for Women Build, encouraging women to get involved to make a difference.  She says, “I dare you to volunteer and then tell me you aren’t passionate about the cause.” 

The amazing Cynthia Wiggins, who is not only a Habitat homeowner but has raised a daughter who is also a Habitat homeowner, and has done advocacy work for Habitat, as well as serve on the board, says that Habitat and home ownership changed her life and provided her with stability that might not have been possible otherwise.

Shanita Modlin, a brand new Habitat homeowner loves the program and her life so much… she went to work for the Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake.   In her job as Volunteer Engagement Manager, she encourages and supports all volunteers – knowing that the volunteers are the lifeblood of Habitat and what makes it work.

All of the women encourage other women to join in – even if you don’t know how to use a hammer.  With the available help and special clinics, you can become a DIY’er in your own home, too.  Coming together with friends or members of your church, your sorority, your professional organization, etc., or just joining up as an individual to work throughout the year on various projects or in the Habitat ReStore, one thing these women know for sure… your life will change, too.

To find out more about becoming a member of Women Build or to explore your opportunities, click here.

If you missed the show or you want to share it with a friend, it will be posted in the podcast archive later on this week.  It’s the April 20^th show.