If you can empower young high school girls to lead, one group says you are needed.

The B.E.E. Club Inc. is looking for active volunteers in the community who can mentor and guide female students at Cedar Shoals High Schools for the club’s new program called B.E.E. Engaged.

The new volunteer engagement program will launch this fall, and the organization needs Athens community members, including college students, to participate. Volunteers have to be 18 years or older, pass a background check with the school system, and go through an application process and an interview by current girls in the program.

If you’re interested in becoming a volunteer, interest meetings start on Oct.15. This one will be held at Cedar Shoals High School’s Parent Resource Center at 6 p.m. If you can’t make this meeting,  but would like to become a volunteer, two more informational meetings will be held on Oct. 29 at the Heritage Room in Athens-Clarke County Library and Nov. 19, again at the Parent Resource Center. Both meetings will start at 6 p.m.

The B.E.E. Club, Becoming Empowered through Education, Inc. is a non-profit organization funded by a grant through the Athens-Clarke County Library. The goal of the program is to aid teen girls through personal and professional developments with the help of community mentors.

Akilah Blount, founder of The B.E.E. Club Inc. and also a recent University of Georgia graduate, seen a need for such a program while in high school. Below you can listen to Blount’s inspiration for the program and expectations for the community volunteers:

For more information about The B.E.E. Club Inc. or B.E.E. Engaged, contact Blount at akilahb.beeclubforgirls@gmail.com or contact the Athens-Clarke County Library.

Taejah Harper is a senior majoring in journalism at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.