For over a decade Jane Stephenson headed the New Opportunity School for Women, a program she started in Berea to help women find ways to face opportunity and conflict in their lives.  Financially distressed, often abused, perhaps out of work, maybe middle-aged—all the women who come to the New Opportunity School need their job skills honed and their sense of self-worth illuminated.

  In a three-week residency program, Jane Stephenson’s program enables women to believe in themselves, to gain self-esteem and the ability to solve their own problems.  They go home changed women.  Some will go to college, some will get new jobs – but all leave with new fortitude and a confirmation that women can make changes in their own lives.

  Jane is also the author of the book Courageous Paths:  Stories of Nine Appalachian Women, in which 9 graduates of the New Opportunity School share their life stories.