Thunderbird for Good

Every year on March 8, the United Nations and women’s groups around the world commemorate International Women’s Day. This holiday first took place in the United States in 1908, and now is celebrated across the world by women in developed and developing countries alike.

This year, Thunderbird for Good looks back on achieving several milestones for women in 2011 and 2012.

Thunderbird graduates 28 women entrepreneurs (February 2012) – Thunderbird  graduated its first class of scholars this afternoon from the U.S. Department of State and Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Entrepreneurship Partnership Program. This group of 28 entrepreneurs, representing 10 nations, is the first of three “global cohorts” of women who will receive training at Thunderbird under the U.S. Department of State and the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative. Today’s graduation comes at the end of two intensive weeks of business skills courses, site visits across Arizona and the successful presentation of each woman’s business plan to a panel of Thunderbird faculty, staff and students.

U.S. State Department and Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Entrepreneurship Partnership video overview

Thunderbird faculty to develop online women’s business academy (September 2011) – The world’s largest publicly traded copper company, Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX) chose Thunderbird School of Global Management to develop a skills training and certification program for women in Peru and Chile, two of the communities where FCX operates mining facilities. The announcement was made at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City. The program will launch in March 2012 and will assist 3,400 female entrepreneurs in Chile and Peru.

Thunderbird collaborates with U.S.- Afghan Women’s Council partners to launch Afghan Women Entrepreneurs Training Toolkit (July 2011) – This initiative, made possible with funding from the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council at Georgetown University through a grant from the Goldman Sachs Foundation, brought together the three business training programs to develop a “toolkit” of materials for program graduates to use in sharing entrepreneurial knowledge and practices with other Afghan women business owners – or aspiring business owners. Eva Weigold-Schultz, U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council, Noa Meyer, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women, Terry Neese, Peace Through Business, and Wynona Heim from Project Artemis were on hand at the 2011 Peace Through Business International Women’s Economic Summit held at Georgetown University to introduce the Tool Kit.

Happy First Anniversary, Proyecto Salta (July 2011) – One year ago today, partners from the public, private and nonprofit sectors launched a four-year campaign to empower 100,000 women entrepreneurs in Peru through business education. The campaign, called Proyecto Salta, includes a three-hour seminar that covers basic concepts such as marketing, negotiation, cash flow management, networking and personal development. Concepts are reinforced through a telenovela created specifically for the Salta training at community centers from Lima to Puno (near Lake Titicaca on the Bolivian border). Overall, 30,661 women participated in the free seminar during the first year.

Empowering Peru’s Women Entrepreneurs (May, 2011) – Five Thunderbird MBA students spent 12 weeks working with Proyecto Salta in Lima.. Proyecto Salta is part of a larger project called “Strengthening Women Entrepreneurship in Peru” or SWEP as we like to call it; in which Thunderbird is working with our partners to train over 100,000 women entrepreneurs across Peru.

Project Artemis Pakistan graduates reflect, dream, inspire (May 2011) – After two weeks, 15 entrepreneurship training sessions, a handful of off-campus site visits and final presentations to a panel of potential “investors,” nine Pakistani businesswomen completed the US Department of State and Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Project Artemis Pakistan at Thunderbird School of Global Management and moved on to Washington, D.C., for a third week of business and cultural immersion.

Thank you to our supporters, volunteers, partners and friends that have helped us to meet these milestones! Find out some of our memories from the last International Women’s Day.

Posted: 03|8|12 at 11:45 am.
Filed under: 10000 Women,, Business Education, Giving Back to the Community, Global Entrepreneurship, Global Leadership, International Development, Project Artemis, SALTA Peru, Sustainability, Women's Issues.
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