The City of Rancho Mirage is helping change the future for young women in the Coachella Valley through its partnership with the JFK Memorial Foundation’s Ophelia Program. By supporting mentorship and leadership opportunities, the city is playing a vital role in empowering girls to discover their confidence, achieve their goals, and become leaders in their communities.
For Rancho Mirage High School senior Dayanarra Diaz Fernandez, the program has been life changing.
“I’ve learned how I feel within myself and what it takes to be a woman honestly—and how your confidence comes from within,” Dayanarra said. “Ophelia is the most welcoming thing in the world. It’s the best thing you can join. I’m going to be an Ophelia girl the rest of my life.”
Over the past three years, Dayanarra has grown under the guidance of her mentor, Dr. Paula Kinney. “This is my third year with Ophelia, and I’m so committed to working with these young women and seeing them blossom,” Dr. Kinney said. “Ophelia helps them take away a feeling that they can do anything they want.”
Dayanarra’s journey is a testament to the program’s success. She plans to pursue nursing at a university, with aspirations to become a traveling nurse and eventually a pediatric nurse practitioner. Her story is one of many behind Ophelia’s 100% high school graduation rate among participants.
The support of the City of Rancho Mirage has been instrumental in making stories like Dayanarra’s possible. City funding and partnership have allowed the program to expand into local schools, recruit and train mentors, and provide enrichment programming to help girls build the skills and confidence needed to lead.
“Partnerships with cities like Rancho Mirage are essential,” said Peter Sturgeon, President/CEO of JFK Memorial Foundation. “They recognize that when cities invest in their young women, they strengthen families, schools, the city, and the entire region.”
As JFK Memorial Foundation works toward its goal of expanding the Ophelia Program to every middle and high school in the Coachella Valley by 2030, civic partnerships will be more critical than ever.
Dayanarra summarized the lifelong impact best: “Ophelia isn’t just something I joined. It’s something I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life.”
To learn more about the Ophelia Program and how your city, business or organization can help support its expansion, visit jfkfoundation.org or contact JFK Memorial Foundation at 760-776-1600 Ext 111.