On Sunday afternoon at the 18th-century, three-story Thomas Law House in Southwest Washington, the teenage girls of the nonprofit High Tea Society slipped on their red gloves, black dresses and green aprons to serve tea - and launch a business.
The girls, a cross-section of students from Northwest to Southeast, were practicing for their future tea-catering venture, Tea on Wheels.
The group, founded in 1997 by retired D.C. Superior Court judge Mary Terrell, takes girls from low-income backgrounds and, each Saturday, gives them college-prep courses and stock market advice as well as expands their cultural awareness.
Potential tea-catering clients clad in fur coats and fur or feathered hats ate small plates of cookies and drank tea at the historic home Sunday.
Brandi Taylor, 17, who attends McKinley Technology High School, said the group hopes it can strike a deal with the Marriott hotel chain to serve tea.
"We're working toward going to top colleges," she said, ticking off Penn State and Bowie State universities as her main choices. She loves the society's investment class. The girls have sunk money into Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and AT&T, she said.
Dayna Hayman, 15, of Southeast, said the program helps her understand the importance of striking out on her own and not adhering to group-think. "I look at my neighbors and see a lot of them are pregnant people. I've learned: Be your own person," she said.
Hayman oversees the group's stock club, and the portfolio has about $400 or $500. The money is used for college scholarships. "We're in the black," she said, reflecting on the past year's stock market swings.
Hayman wants to be a defense attorney. "Everybody deserves a second chance," she said.
By Ian Shapira
source