TAMPA, Fla. — The Hillsborough County School Board on Tuesday will vote on funding for a trip to Atlanta for 10 Chamberlain High School girls as part of the EmpowerHer program.

The program was developed two years ago to help at-risk students perform better in school and in the community.

“We had a group of girls that were struggling with academics, behavior, conduct in school, and we've been meeting with them on and off particularly in those two years through COVID and just providing opportunities for them outside their neighborhood,” said one of the program leads, Jody Rembert.

Rembert, assistant principal for curriculum at Chamberlain, said over two years the group has met with influential Black leaders across the county, some of them from the same neighborhoods in which the students are growing up.

Chamberlain senior Skyla Bush said EmpowerHer has given her opportunities she wouldn’t have had otherwise.

“It taught me self-discipline and how to respect myself and respect others around me and showed me there is life out of school,” Bush said.

Junior Kiayana Torres said the group has helped her turn her life around from the time she was a freshman.

“When I first started in this group, I was getting in a lot of trouble — misbehaving, referrals, suspensions,” Torres said.  “Now I am in the National Honor Society, A/B student, I don't get in trouble. And because this group helped me, it lifted me up."

The EmpowerHer program at Chamberlain is the first of its kind in Hillsborough County Schools, and there is hope that in future years the district will expand the program to more schools.

A big step in that direction could happen today, as the Hillsborough County School Board will vote on whether to fund a trip to Atlanta for the group March 18-21

If approved, 10 students would visit historic Black colleges and landmarks in Atlanta, including Spelman College and Clark Atlanta University, as well as the Martin Luther King Center.