Built To Lead

By Aubrey Hayes · Photos Supplied

It has become a Strictly Business tradition to focus on the region’s younger generations in our June issue. Part of our conversation centers on what we can do to foster strong, empowered community leaders. When asked what we need to keep people here, a common response is more youth programming and more resources for children and families. The Shine On program at SUNY Plattsburgh, involving local girls from grades three through five and SUNY Plattsburgh college students, checks many of those boxes,

Every spring SUNY Plattsburgh’s Memorial Hall turns into something more. Streamers are hung. Balloons are tied to the railings. And somewhere between the registration table and the first workshop, something shifts in the young girls who walk through the gym doors. Something that, for many of them, doesn’t shift back.

Founded by SUNY Plattsburgh Professor of Public Relations, Colleen Lemza in 2008, Shine On is a program that strives to build strong girls through media and marketing literacy, character development and upstander communications skills. “The essence of Shine On is to strengthen girls’ confidence so they don’t succumb to the negative societal pressures faced in middle school and beyond,” said Lemza.

Yamuna Turco was one of the students who attended Shine On when the girls would sleep in the college gym with the mentors they looked up to. Turco explained Shine On was one of the first places she met girls from outside of her own community. Several of the mentors were Black women, something that meant a lot to her growing up as a first-generation American in Plattsburgh. “It was really nice to meet people and be in environments where maybe I was uncomfortable,” Turco said. “I learned to try new things and that was really exciting.”

Today, Turco is a multimedia journalist for NBC 5 in South Burlington. She covers wildlife, healthcare, federal policy, and more and traces her comfort with meeting new people and new situations to her early days in Shine On. “There is a need to keep doing what Shine On has been doing,” she said, “which is to build confidence and help introduce girls to different avenues and interests they might have, but are scared to try.”

Shine On’s impact doesn’t only apply to the little girls. Chrysa Rabideau, now a labor specialist for Champlain Valley Educational Services, was the chairwoman of the 2021 Look to the Stars Shine On conference, which was held virtually due to COVID. “When the committee first floated the idea of securing a NASA downlink with astronauts on the International Space Station the initial reaction was disbelief, she offered. “We were competing with organizations like the Boston Children’s Museum, so we never expected to be chosen. We wrote a 37-page proposal with support from the SUNY Chancellor and multiple New York State elected officials that was NASA’s first choice selection. It just goes to show you that a group of strong, motivated women can do anything.” On the day of the conference, over 6,500 students across New York State tuned in to ask NASA astronauts questions. Rabideau cried at the end of the day. “I was so moved by it,” she said.

Today, Rabideau’s job is built almost entirely on the same skills she developed working on the committee. She works on behalf of regional school districts managing employee relations. “Shine On was one of the first leadership roles I had. What it taught me is emotional intelligence and how to be a confident communicator, That is much of what I do in dealing with people today.”

Olivia Bousquet, a Peru native, participated in the Shine On program as she was growing up and when she got to SUNY Plattsburgh, she knew she wanted to be a part of it. She is now working alongside the superintendent of schools in Peru, supporting district-wide operations and communications. “Shine On taught us what our classes didn’t prepare us for,” she said. “We learned how to pivot and adapt when something didn’t go according to plan.”

This year’s Shine On theme “Step Outside of Your Bubble: Do It Scared,” encouraged girls to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Bianka Snider attended Shine On as a young girl. This year, she came back as a mentor. Now in her third year of a Childhood and Special Education combined Bachelor’s and Master’s program, she said, “I felt like I was really making a difference for the girls, teaching them how to embrace discomfort to find their inner strengths. As a future educator, that’s really valuable for me.”

Abbey Paul, this year’s chairwoman, attended Shine On as a girl before coming back to organize and lead the program. “Being chairwoman has strengthened my confidence as a leader,” she said, “just as I hope our message fosters every girl’s confidence in herself.”

John Bernardi, CEO of United Way of the Adirondacks, said, “As a community, we want to encourage young people to stay here and be a part of our future. The Shine On program has helped build our future leaders and continues to make our community so great. I’ve seen it firsthand. Even the girls who participated years ago still hold the value from that.”

You likely have a co-worker, a family member or a friend that has benefited from the Shine On program and, 18 years later, all of the girls who walked through those doors are still shining.

Aubrey Hayes is a SUNY Plattsburgh Journalism major and co-chair of the

2026 Shine On program.