Women on the Way Up has been profiled in local newspaper and TV features several times over the years. Learn more below.
Christine Laskin and Liz Seitz in 2008 used their frequent runs to train for a marathon, but also as a way to catch up on each other’s lives. The two were neighbors and became even closer as they discussed just about everything.
Seitz, 51, remembers talking a lot about her mom, Joan Karff; about her then-recent diagnosis of ovarian cancer; and about a unique program she started eight years earlier at Lamar High School to help teenage girls called Women on the Way Up.
Idea person: Joan Karff.
Big idea: Exposing high school girls to culture, the arts, and current events can change their lives.
How it grew: Karff loves dance. She taught dance at Rice, before forming a professional modern dance company. The New Dance Group was the Houston Jewish Community Center’s resident company for 25 years, and also performed frequently in area schools. Karff ran every aspect of the company, says Rabbi Laura Sheinkopf.
HOUSTON (KTRK) — Throughout her lifetime, Joan Karff has touched the lives of so many, but one group in particular is undeniable proof of her compassion.
Over the past 15 years, Karff has mentored a hand-picked group of 150 low-income girls at Lamar High School.
Ten years ago, Evelyn Rico-Soto was entering her senior year at Lamar High School, somewhat spirited about her post-high school future but unsure of her college path. Veterinary medicine seemed a reputable and safe choice.
Out of nowhere, coincidentally, came a mentor who helped Rico-Soto with the confidence to leap to a riskier, though more rewarding path.
A longtime producer and director of a dance company, Joan Karff, 73, of Bellaire, was looking to do something meaningful as a second career just as her husband, Rabbi Samuel Karff, retired and began a second career in education.
“I needed something to engage myself in when I left the dance company nine years ago,” Karff said. “I was always interested in the education of women and in the arts, and in reading. I thought I could bring what the world has to offer to young girls.”
