ow do young women use the power of their intellect and the energy of their passion to make positive change in today’s world? How can we equip Emma Willard students to join our alumnae and many other dedicated women in this vital effort?
We heard from a group of young women already making their mark around the globe. They examined the issues and contemplated the many possibilities that emerge when women translate their beliefs into action with commitment and conviction.
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Jessica Jackley Flannery, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer, Kiva
Jessica Jackley Flannery is a co-founder of Kiva with her husband Matt, the spirit behind the organization. Jessica first saw the power and beauty of microfinance while working in rural Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda with Village Enterprise Fund and Project Baobab on impact evaluation and program development. Jessica has worked in the Stanford Center for Social Innovation to launch the inaugural Global Philanthropy Forum, and at Amazon.com, Potentia Media, the International Foundation and World Vision. Jessica has spoken widely on microfinance and social entrepreneurship, and has seen microfinance at work in a variety of communities in more than 30 countries. Jessica serves on a number of non-profit boards, including Opportunity International. Jessica holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business with Certificates in Global Management and Public Management, and a BA in Philosophy and Political Science from Bucknell University.
Jessica gave the opening remarks at Women, Power, and Possibility.
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Katherine Chon, President/Co-Founder, Polaris Project
Katherine Chon partnered with Derek Ellerman in 2002 to co-found Polaris Project. Since its inception, Ms. Chon has been involved in stewarding all aspects of Polaris Project's growth, operations, and programs. Ms. Chon has worked closely with survivors of labor and sex trafficking through victim identification, service provision, client empowerment, and case management. Ms. Chon has testified before Congress; provided training and technical assistance to law enforcement, service providers, shelters, and community groups in the US; and has provided consultation to dozens of foreign government delegations, businesses, investors, universities, and non-government organizations. Ms. Chon has been recognized for her social entrepreneurship with a Do Something BRICK Award and the Lifetime Champions for Change honor. In 2006, she was one of 10 recipients of Redbook Magazine's Strength and Spirit Award, and recently in 2007, she was awarded Running Start's Women to Watch Award. Ms. Chon has a background in cross-cultural education theory, social science research, and experimental design and analysis from Brown University.
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Lindsay Hyde, Strong Women, Strong Girls
Lindsay Hyde founded Strong Women, Strong Girls (SWSG) during her freshman year at Harvard University. The mission of SWSG is to utilize the lessons learned from strong women throughout history to encourage girls and young women to become strong women themselves. Upon her graduation in 2004, Lindsay incorporated SWSG as a not for profit agency and began serving as the executive director. Now, SWSG engages over 400 at-risk girls annually in Boston, MA, and Pittsburgh, PA. Based on the program’s success, in 2007 SWSG was recognized as a “Social Innovator” by the Social Innovation Forum.
Lindsay's leadership of SWSG has been widely recognized, including with a Do Something BRICK Award. Most recently, Lindsay received a National Jefferson Award for the Greatest Public Service by an Individual 35 or Younger, joining the ranks of CityYear founer Alan Khazei and Teach for America founder Wendy Kopp.
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Neelam Mehta '93, founder and director, Click-Aid
Founded in 2002, ClickAid, working in partnership with Non-Profit Computing, Inc., is a nonprofit organization that collects and organizes obsolete and unwanted computer technology and donates the equipment to groups and charities in underdeveloped nations around the world. Click-Aid has sent thousands of computers to schools, hospitals, job training centers, literacy programs, and people with disabilities. |
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Sierra Murdoch '05, The Climate Movement, Middlebury College Sunday Night Group, www.350.org
Sierra is a junior at Middlebury College, majoring in environmental studies and conservation biology. She is a part of the Middlebury Sunday Night Group (SNG), a non-hierarchical, open forum devoted to enacting solutions to global warming and considered nationally to be a model for college activist organizations. Through SNG, she has worked on making Middlebury College "carbon neutral" by 2016 and has assisted fellow Middlebury students in planning national demonstrations, such as Step it Up. In the summer of 2007, she helped found and lead a campaign called Climate Summer, committed to making climate change solutions a priority for New Hampshire voters and presidential candidates in the 2008 elections. |
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Ashley Shuyler, AfricAid
Ashley is the founder of AfricAid. Since returning from a photographic safari to Tanzania in 1996, and forming AfricAid, she has worked tirelessly to support girls’ education there by providing funding and school supplies to schools and students throughout Tanzania and East Africa. Ashley has traveled extensively throughout the world, and returns to Tanzania almost every year to help with various projects, including spending four months in 2005 teaching English, math, and geography to the pre-Form One class at the Masaai Girls’ School. Most recently, she spent the summer of 2007 doing senior-year thesis research in Tanzania, while also visiting AfricAid’s projects and shooting footage for a video ethnography about the Maasai. Aside from helping with administrative work, she is also AfricAid’s spokesperson. Ashley is currently a senior at Harvard University, where she will receive a BA in social studies, specializing in Third World development. Ashley has been a member of the AfricAid Board since 2003.
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Erin Sprague, Chief Executive Officer, In the Running
Erin Sprague is the Chief Executive Officer of In the Running, a US-based nonprofit organization that raises funds and awareness for a grassroots-focused charitable organization on each continent. At 24 years old, Erin has set a Guinness World Record as the youngest woman to run a 26.2 mile marathon on all seven continents (including Antarctica!). As Erin runs marathons all over the world, In the Running supports seven small organizations that combat the following global challenges: youth fitness, human trafficking, poverty, peace reconciliation, HIV/AIDS, environmental preservation and minority advancement through education.
Erin runs In the Running in addition to her full time job in New York City, where she is an Analyst at The Blackstone Group, a New York-based financial firm. Before Blackstone, Erin graduated with honors from Harvard University with a degree in History. Erin ran on the cross-country and track teams as a student at Harvard and was very involved in community service activities around campus. Erin has climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa and has run eleven marathons in six U.S. states and on six continents…so far! Erin grew up in Queensbury New York where she attended Queensbury High School.
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ow do young women use the power of their intellect and the energy of their passion to make positive change in today’s world? How can we equip Emma Willard students to join our alumnae and many other dedicated women in this vital effort?
