October has encompassed many exciting updates to share across our various programs in our three verticals: Empowering Youth, Empowering Women, and Empowering Innovation. 

In our Empowering Youth vertical, our HGB team had the chance to go on a site visit with our BridgeUP Environment program, housed within our partnership with the Student Conservation Association (SCA). The visit took place at Highbridge Park in Upper Manhattan, where our team got a chance to see a crew project in action. Pictured below is their Summer Mountain Bike Trail Project! 

Within our Empowering Women vertical, our HGB team had an exciting road trip mid-October to visit four  out of the six of our college campuses that house our BOLD Women Leadership Network scholar program: Ithaca College, the College of Saint Rose, the University of Connecticut, and Rutgers University-Newark. Our scholars at these various schools are immersed in grade-based cohorts on their respective campuses, and have been partaking in various pre-professional trainings, as well as embarking on their own individual creative projects. 

Ithaca College’s BOLD program has a lounge specifically for BOLD Scholars, that they have access to utilize throughout the day to hang out, do work, and get advice. It acts as a home away from home for the students to gather in a safe space for them to develop career goals and skills. We got a lovely campus tour from two of the scholars, Mikayla Tolliver and Taina Anelina, who are both a part of the Class of 2024. The students are working on various projects they can collaborate on, creating opportunities for themselves and for the greater campus community.

The College of Saint Rose has a slightly different blueprint than our other BOLD campuses, having designated housing for the BOLD scholars to live together. They have separate living arrangements for both their junior and senior cohorts. The seniors are housed within the Michelle Cuzzo Borisenok ‘80 House, which serves as the women’s leadership empowerment hub on campus. We got a tour from the two students pictured below, Glesaidys Eve and Anna Maria Dzyadyk.

At the University of Connecticut, BOLD scholars partake in senior year research projects that they begin to ideate during their junior year. Some examples of the projects the young women are working on include a documentary series that depicts the effects of housing injustice, a website exploring diversity within art museums, and a research paper on marginalized voices within the environmentalism movement. All of the projects stem from real passions and curiosities of the students, highlighting their diverse interests and backgrounds within cohorts. 

Our final stop on the road trip was Rutgers University-Newark, where we heard inspiring stories from the BOLD Scholars as to what the program means for them and why they were drawn to it. We heard about the deep involvement the Scholars  have with their surrounding communities in Newark. An example is their commitment to community service initiatives at Branch Brook Park where the BOLD scholars are regarded as one of the most consistent and reliable support groups. Additionally, each of the students participate in internships where they get professional career experience, something fundamental to the BOLD program. They have monthly workshops and get the opportunity to attend various conferences nationwide. It has become a reputable and competitive program to be a part of on Rutgers’ campus.

In our Empowering Innovation vertical, we had an impressive milestone for our Brown Institute for Media Innovation, a partnership housed between Columbia University in New York and Stanford University in California. They just passed their 10 year founding anniversary, and hosted a dinner to celebrate the accomplishments of their first round of impact grant recipients. The dinner was a celebration of the accomplishments and work of our inaugural impact grant recipients. Four projects were supported by the HGB Foundation in 2021-2022. At Stanford, these projects include Screenlake, a next-generation user-tracking software that provides high-level intelligence and benefits to both users and companies, and BigLocal Data+, a journalist-facing data repository and toolset to better report on local communities. At Columbia, projects include Documenting, a public records project providing insights on industry-connected agencies like the SEC, and Local Lives, a live events company providing experiences that deepen engagement and provide new streams of revenue for local news organizations. 

And finally, one of our Innovation Grant recipients, Dr. Lucy King made a visit to NYC all the way from South Africa. We were able to chat with her about updates and strategize on initiatives related to her work and research with Save the Elephants. Best of all, I got the chance to try the amazing honey harvested from these African communities! To hear more about Dr. Lucy King’s visit, check back in next week for a post detailing more about her incredible and truly genius level work overseas!

We are very proud and impressed by our various programs, Directors, and participants who continue to make huge strides towards embracing so many of core values, especially dreaming big, creating magic and disrupting the status quo. Mark your calendars for the November blog – we look forward to keeping you all in the loop and along for the ride with HGB!