Laura Gray knows firsthand the enormous importance of empowerment and self-esteem.
By Jean Bonchak, News Herald
Laura Gray knows firsthand the enormous importance of empowerment and self-esteem.
Sexually abused as a child, Gray’s travel through trauma and subsequent healing set the background for her creation of the IPride program helping others to realize their self-worth.
“Through my deepest wound and from my darkest days, I felt called by God to use my pain to propel my passion and life’s purpose; to provide kids with the tools to help improve their self-esteem,” the Mentor resident said.
The program, which has been presented at schools, libraries and various organizations, is comprised of workshops focusing on positive messages through writing, fitness and mindfulness.
“The advantages of having IPride…is giving students that feeling of self-help and self-love… it just gives students a safe space to think about themselves in a positive light,” Deanna Elsing said.
IPride Write teaches participants to effectively convey their ideas as well as how to actively listen and respect others’ ways of thinking. IPride Fit focuses on self-respect and self-esteem of the physical self while incorporating yoga, stretching and basic exercises.
Teachers who’ve invited Gray to deliver the program to their students have witnessed its effectiveness.
Deanna Elsing, a former staffer in the Willoughby-Eastlake School District and current assistant principal at Mayfield High School, said that one girl’s way of coping with trauma transformed from self-harm to significantly more positive approaches after the program.
“The advantages of having IPride…is giving students that feeling of self-help and self-love… it just gives students a safe space to think about themselves in a positive light,” Elsing said.
Melissa Garcar, international baccalaureate coordinator for Cleveland Heights-University Heights School District, agrees.
“I just think it gives students the opportunity to express themselves in more than one way,” Garcar said. “You want the kids to have confidence in themselves. We call it student agency. They choose, act, reflect. Her program kind of supports that.”
Erin Kortovich, a teacher at All Saints School of St. John Vianney in Wickliffe, notes that “When I think of Laura’s program I take away this: It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
Gray herself often receives positive feedback after students experience IPride. Following one workshop she recalls a youth who thanked her and admitted that he felt like he had “just released a dinosaur.”
The development of IPride involved several different paths throughout Gray’s life. Earning a bachelor’s degree in communications and a life coach certification and work as a personal fitness trainer provided various tools and expertise.
Despite navigating a busy schedule with her current position as director of client services and business development for Maloney and Novotny as well as involvement with IPride, she continues to find time to continue on her own journey of fulfillment and self-realization as well as helping others.
Recently she studied “The Science of Well Being” through a course offered by Yale University. She also created a YouTube channel featuring a series of videos titled “IPride in 5: Peace in Peace Out,” which offers five minutes of mindfulness stretching, affirmations and meditation.
“I spent COVID learning and growing…and to add more value and credibility to what I was doing,” she said.
Included with her inspirational initiatives is work as a contributing writer to the book “Mayhem to Miracles: Sacred Stories of Transformational Hope” and the online media digest BizCatalyst 360.