Want to Reach Your Goal?

AGW editors Brigid C., 12, and Gina O, 11, had the opportunity to ask Kaffie McCollough, founder and executive director of GOAL about her cool career! Kaffie is a graduate of Wells College. Here's what Brigid and Gina found out:

AGW:What does GOAL stand for?

Kaffie: GOAL stands for Girls' Outdoor Adventure for Leadership. Our mission is to promote self-esteem, self-awareness and a respect for individual differences in girls, grades 6 - 9, leading to an enhanced capacity for leadership. We do this in a variety of settings that utilize the challenges of the outdoors and the lessons of interacting in a diverse community.

AGW:Why did you create GOAL?

Kaffie: For a couple of different reasons. At that time I was a psychotherapist in private practice. I worked with a lot of women around issues of self-esteem and self-awareness and speaking up and asking for what they wanted/needed. I realized that a lot of what they were dealing with were issues that would/could have been better dealt with when they were girls. So I thought that if there was a program for girls that tried to address these issues, then maybe the girls of today wouldn't have to be in therapy for these issues when they were 30 or 40. That was the reason in the forefront of my mind... somewhere in my unconscious I think that GOAL is the way I get daughters... I have two sons and one grandson and GOAL is my way of nurturing the female energy of the world.

AGW: What did you have to do to get GOAL started?

Kaffie: I contacted a bunch of different people here in Atlanta and talked over the idea with them. From them I got names of other people who knew how to do this sort of thing. How do you start a not-for-profit business? I took classes at the Georgia Center for Non-profits and just started absorbing like a sponge all the pieces of information that I needed to have. I began asking different women if they'd like to be on the Board of Directors and we went from there. Women of all ages, ethnicities and religions have been supportive both financially and emotionally as we've worked to get GOAL off the ground.

AGW:What do you do now as Executive Director?

Kaffie: I do a little bit of everything. Before we had a Program Director, I was the only staff member and I did all the program stuff too, but now Julie Rainbow does that... recruiting girls for our programs, program development, implementation, and evaluation. My main job right now is probably fundraising. I write grants to private foundations, the government, churches, and businesses and describe GOAL and what we're doing and ask them to support us financially. I also network a lot in the community to get GOAL's name and mission more visible to the people of Atlanta. In general, I am the one staff person who's job it is to make sure that GOAL survives... that we continue to serve girls and do it well with a quality program.

AGW:How did you prepare for this kind of career?

Kaffie: That's kind of tough to answer because this carreer kind of 'found' me. It was an idea that took form while I was in another career. So I guess I would answer that by saying that I always try to stay open to what is going on inside my mind. Probably what I would say though is that I had to be willing to take a risk... a lot of people were skeptical as to whether a program like this would 'make it'. I never really listened to them because I really felt drawn to make GOAL happen and I never doubted that we would succeed. There were times when I would be scared about whether we'd raise enough money, but then I would just step back and trust. That's a lot easier to say than it was to do at some times.

AGW:What kind of classes did you take in school that help you now?

Kaffie: Now I'm pretty 'old' by your standards and I've had a lot of different classes. I have a Masters degree in Counseling Psychology that allowed me to be a therapist. At Wells College, I had a double major of Chemistry and History & Philosophy of Religion. I guess it kind of started at Wells, because no one had done a double major - particularly one of such divergent subjects - when I was at Wells. I wanted to do it because I figured I could get a job with the Chemistry - and I loved the History & Philosophy of Religion. I didn't take 'no' for an answer then either. Once I've decided that I want something I really try to make it happen. Wells encouraged all of us to be who we wanted to be. So even though none of my actual classes at Wells were courses that prepared me for where I am today (business courses, etc.) I'd have to say that the confidence and encouragement and support I got there helped

AGW: Who were some of your role models?

Kaffie: I'm not really aware of any females that I used as role models. Most of the women in my family didn't work outside the home - although my mother has always been incredibly supportive of all my endeavors. I think in a general way some of the early women in the Women's Movement inspired me to keep on pushing myself... Gloria Steinam and Betty Friedan.... that it was OK to want more than what I saw women around me doing. My parents both allowed me to do whatever I wanted and didn't limit my activities because I was a 'girl' - which at the time I was growing up wasn't as common as it is today.

AGW: Have you ever had to deal with prejudice against women while you were working?

Kaffie: I have never personally run into prejudice against women - at least that I chose to confront consciously. I always go at everything I do as if it's OK for me to do it. I never go at men - or women- as if they might not want me there for whatever reason. However most of the fields that I chose to work in were fields that women are more accepted in - teaching, therapy, and service organizations.

AGW: What's the biggest challenge you ever faced on my job?

Kaffie: That changes depending you ask me. Just getting GOAL off the ground was a tremendous challenge. The first summer when we had our program at one point I just stood back and looked at all the girls there and was awestruck. We had done it - I felt tearful and so grateful... no one person is ever totally responsible for something like GOAL happening. I feel blessed every day in this work. The 'respect for individual differences' piece of our mission is an ongoing challenge for me... to find whatever places in me that still judge differences and work with on myself to be more open and less judgmental. It's a spiritual challenge that gives me daily growth.

AGW: What were you like as a girl?

Kaffie: I was a total tomboy when I was a girl. I have three brothers and I was the second in the birth order. I played baseball, football, climbed trees... you name it. I hated that my brothers could all be on Little League and I couldn't be. (I guess that when I was little was the only time I experienced the prejudice against women/girls and I HATED it... to where I think I formed an attitude that I could do anything I wanted to and you weren't going to stop me.) Actually I was the best athlete of all my brothers with the exception of my youngest brother, but when I was 11 and 12, he was only 5 and 6 - so there was no competition.

AGW: What did you want to do when you grew up?

Kaffie: What I wanted to do 'when I grew up' changed a number of times. I first wanted to be a physicist - then a veteranarian, then a pediatrician... all my goals were in the sciences at that time. I could do science and math and I liked the fact that no one expected a girl to be good at them. I went to an all girls high school as well as an all women's college - so I was continually nurtured to be and do whatever I wanted. I think my decision to be in the sciences was not a clear 'choice'. I could do it... it was different for a woman at that time ( I was one of three Chemistry majors at Wells in the late 60's)... and I think I wanted to 'prove' that women could do anything a man could do.

AGW: Do you ever feel nervous or scared when you get up in front of people and what do you do about it?

Kaffie: I do feel nervous in front of groups sometimes. I am basically a quiet person. When I was younger I would say that I was 'shy' but now it's just a quietness that is just me. So in my job as Executive Director of GOAL I sometimes have to be in large social groups and networking. That is a stretch for me. I feel so passionate about GOAL that that makes it easier, but there are times when I can feel at a loss for words and wish that I had the ease with people that someone who is more outgoing has. I know no one else sees this because I have friends who say that they'd never know that about me if I didn't tell them... but I know what it feels like inside of my skin.

AGW: What are your goals and dreams?

Kaffie: I have a goal to make GOAL into an organization that will keep on going after I am no longer with it. It feels like one of my children in a way... where I want to provide support and nurturance while it's young and then watch proudly as it makes it own way in the world. I have a dream of one day writing a book. I'm not sure what the book will be, but trust that it will come to me.

AGW: What do you see yourself doing five years from now? How about 10 or 20 years?

Kaffie: In 5 years I see myself retiring with my husband, with GOAL totally able to continue without me. I want to be active in retirement... at the present I'm not sure how, but I think that 's when I would like to start writing my book. So in 10 years I see myself writing and having had at least one thing published. In 20 years... wow, I'll be 75... and you know I've always said that I want to be 75 and hiking the Appalachian Trail... so that's what I see myself doing in 20 years.

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