Ranked #1 in the World
Thunderbird is celebrating the 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day
Tuesday, March 8th, 2011Today is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. This day has been a day of global celebration annually every March 8th since the early 1900’s to honor and celebrate women’s economic, political, and social achievements. At Thunderbird we believe investing in and celebrating women is a worthwhile cause. When we invest in the positive development of women and girls it has a positive ripple effect on her family, her community and her nation.
Thunderbird for Good has made investing in women a priority since 2005 with the launch of Project Artemis, a unique two-week intensive entrepreneurship course held on Thunderbird’s Glendale campus. Since then, we have trained 63 Afghan businesswomen though our Project Artemis program. Women from numerous provinces in Afghanistan have taken part in business training programs and have had great successes. For example, several women who participated in Project Artemis will both receive funding to use toward building schools in their communities, others have received sizeable grants and donations, and this year one of our graduates, Fatima Akbari, will receive the 2011 Vital Voices Global Leadership Award. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEHK6GkkHjI
In an expansion of the program, Thunderbird for Good will welcome 10 businesswomen from Pakistan for a Project Artemis style program operated in partnership with Goldman Sachs and the U.S. Department of State. This program will run in early May.
Thunderbird is also a partner of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women business certificate program in both Afghanistan and Peru. www.10000women.org. In Afghanistan, classes are held at the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, and in Peru, classes are held at the Universidad del Pacífico in Lima. The program in Afghanistan was launched in 2008 and so far we have trained 104 Afghan businesswomen, of which 47% report increased profits six months after graduating from the program and 67% of aspiring entrepreneurs who have graduated from the program report having started their own business within 6 months of graduating. We launched our Peru program in 2010 and so far have trained 60 businesswomen. One of our scholars, Maria Gilda, has been selected as a finalist for the Inter-American Development Bank business plan competition of 2011. By the end of 2013, we will have trained 700 businesswomen through this program in Peru, and so far through both of our programs we have trained 164 businesswomen.
Another exciting program in Peru is Proyecto Salta, a seminar based business training for women micro-entrepreneurs in Peru. This training is three hours and approximately 200 women attend each training session. We have created a telenovela or soap opera to go along with the training, and clips are shown throughout to reinforce the concepts we are teaching. The telenovela is a story about a businesswoman named Vicki who runs a small store out of her house but has aspirations to open a restaurant. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJA2aFSGNJo. So far, we have trained over 20,000 women in this program, and by the end of 2013, we will have trained 100,000 women micro-entrepreneurs.
And today, on the 100th anniversary of International Women’s day, Secretary Clinton announced a partnership between the U.S. Department of State, Goldman Sachs, and Thunderbird to provide business education to 100 women from around the world. Those women will study together in classes at Thunderbird, not only learning from our faculty, but learning from each other as they participate in a “global cohort.”
You can learn more about the work we are doing in Thunderbird for Good by visiting our website at www.thunderbird.edu/t4g.
