The beginnings of the Personal Progress Program

I walk by faith, a daughter of heav’nly parents.  Divine am I in nature by inheritance.

And someday, when God has proven me, I’ll see him face to face.

But just for here and now I walk by faith.

“I Walk by Faith” by Janice Kapp Perry

Sister Kapp in 1989
Source:  lds.org

My older daughter will enter the Young Women program at the end of the month.  This Wednesday will be her first midweek activity because all the graduating Primary girls have been invited to participate.  Then two weeks later is New Beginnings, and a whole new adventure for my not-so-little-anymore girl.

I remember turning 12.  I sat on the couch in my Beehive leader’s living room; she sat to my right.  She explained Sunday YW meetings and midweek mutual activities.  We talked about the Young Women’s theme.  Then she handed me a slim book that, if I remember rightly, was white and green.  I remember flipping through the book, looking at the pictures, as Sister Georgeson introduced me to My Personal Progress.  Like the Gospel in Action program I had participated in while a Merrie Miss, the My Personal Progress program would help me to develop righteous habits through setting goals.

The program required goal-setting in six areas:

·         Spiritual Awareness

·         Homemaking Arts

·         Service and Compassion

·         Recreation and the World of Nature

·         Cultural Arts and Education

·         Personal and Social Refinement

The LDS Church instituted the Personal Progress program in 1977, making the manual available in January of 1978.  The following summer Ruth H. Funk, then the Young Women General President, wrote that “the theory behind [Personal Progress] is simple and powerful:  we want each girl to know that her personal progress is eternal, that it will never be finished in this life.  We want her to know that she can change and grow at any time in her life.” ¹

Sister Georgeson also told me that this year, 1986, had marked a shift in the Young Women program.  The Church broadcasted a worldwide satellite Young Women fireside the year before, on Sunday, November 10, 1985.  At this fireside, Sister Ardeth Greene Kapp introduced seven Young Women Values.   These values, Sister Kapp explained, were “intended to serve as a guide to all Young Women in living the gospel and serving God” ² In the Feb.  1986 issue of the Ensign, she elaborated: 

“The Young Women Values have been selected to help young women know who they are and what to stand for during a time when peer pressure and acceptance by others exert a major influence in their lives.  Understanding the values expressed in the Young Women program can help parents reinforce these principles as they help their daughters realize a righteous, happy life and strengthen their commitment to the gospel.” ³

 Later during that same fireside, Sister Maurine J. Turley, second counselor in the General Young Women Presidency, introduced a new Young Women theme:  We are daughters of a Heavenly Father who loves us, and we love him.  We will ‘stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places’ as we strive to live the Young Women values.  A choir then sang the new musical composition I Walk by Faith.

Although leaders in ward Young Women organizations were encouraged from the beginning to incorporate the Young Women Values into their Sunday lessons and midweek experiences, they appear to have had some trouble figuring out exactly how to do this.  ⁴   Personally, I don’t remember any emphasis on the Young Women Values during my Beehive years.  The first spring after I became a Mia Maid, though, Young Women leaders got some help:  the Church released revised Personal Progress manuals that replaced the six suggested goal-setting areas with the seven Young Women Values.  From then on, Beehives and Mia Maids would complete 2 value experiences for each value every year, and Laurels would complete 2 value projects each year.  Sister Kapp said, “Personal Progress is an essential element of the Young Women program.  Basing this program on the Young Women theme, values, and motto can help give direction to a young woman’s life and strengthen her testimony of the gospel.” ⁵ At the same time, each value was assigned a color to provide a visual reminder of the values. 

Also in the Feb. 1986 Ensign, Sister Kapp talked about the importance of values and goal-setting to a young woman. 

The Young Women Values—Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice and Accountability, Good Works, and Integrity [and Virtue-Anna]—serve as a guide to every young woman.  These values can help a young woman understand who she really is and give her an identity apart from the world.  The gospel principles expressed in the Values help her to increase her faith in Heavely Father and to realize that the qualities she possesses are part of her divine nature.  These understandings will guide her in setting goals, in evaluating her progress, and in making her life purposeful. ⁶

Yesterday I pulled out my Young Womanhood Recognition medallion and showed it to my daughter.  I explained, briefly, the Personal Progress program, and encouraged her to work to earn her own awards.  She feels a bit intimidated, but I assured her that she can do it.  I told her that the work she puts into her Personal Progress will help her to become the young woman she wants to be.

^{1. Funk, Ruth H. “Why your daughter needs the Young Women Program” Ensign, (August 1978). ↩}

^{2. “Young Women counseled to stand for truth and righteousness” Ensign, (January 1986). ↩}

^{3. Kapp, Ardeth.  “Establishing a righteous identity: A conversation with Ardeth Kapp, Young Women General President” Ensign, (February 1986). ↩}

^{4. Thomas, Janet.  “No ordinary time” New Era, (May 1989). ↩}

^{5. Kapp, Ardeth.  “A conversation about Personal Progress and Young Women” Ensign, (March 1989).↩}

^{6. See footnote 3. ↩}