'Grit And Grace' Nonprofit Mentors Young Women, Strengthens Leadership Skills

The PBR is coming to Tulsa this weekend, but it's bringing more than just bulls and cowboys.

The Grit and Grace Nation will be back for the second year. It's a nonprofit mentorship program that embraces young women in the western world and helps them strengthen their leadership skills.

Grit and Grace Founder Fanchon Stinger and student leader Annabella Aiken joined us to talk more about the weekend ahead.

CLICK HERE to learn more about the nonprofit.

What is the mission of Grit and Grace?

"The mission with Grit and Grace is equipping our young ladies with courage and the tools they need to succeed in life, those interpersonal skills but also in leadership. And we've reached girls, all over every different interest. You can be in western sports. You can be outside western sports.

But right now, as all of you know, our young ladies are dealing with a lot of hard issues. And anxiety is at an all time high. Low self esteem is a struggle. So we are stepping into those areas, coming alongside young ladies and helping to equip them with the leadership skills, with confidence, with etiquette, with communication skills. All the things they need, like I said to be successful. Not only in life, but as they're making decisions about school, as they're making decisions about friends, and moving into their pre-professional," Stinger explained.

What can girls here expect when they get involved?

"Well, we are delighted that one of our very first chapters started in Oklahoma, in addition to several other states. But that Oklahoma chapter really allows our young ladies to put into practice a lot of the leadership skills that we're working on with them. So when we talk about communication, when we talk about self awareness, we talk about managing your emotions, when we talk about all of those things that are so critical to being a good leader, a strong leader, a confident leader, a well spoken leader, the chapters give the girls an experience to really put that into practice.

Like I said, we do etiquette training in our chapters. We talk about the things that are happening each and every day. And it's building a sisterhood test. We know that when you have a sisterhood of other peers that are all focused on the same thing.

And then you have a whole community of women who come alongside as mentors like yourself, these young ladies are walking into any experience and they're viewing the context of what happens in their life much differently. And our mantra is, whatever happens in life, because we know there's going to be things. It's meant to make you. It's not meant to break you. And if our young ladies can embrace that, and apply that to their daily life, my goodness. That's going to change everything. And we're seeing it happen," Stinger said.

What impact has Grit and Grace had on you?

"Let me just start by saying that when I applied for this scholarship opportunity, I did not expect that this is where it would take me. I did not know that I'd be getting a family, a sisterhood of people that we connect with. And we can talk to about our struggles, and just communicate with not just here in Oklahoma, but all across the nation, which is really cool that I've become a part of this," Aiken said.