BOLD Women’s Leadership Network

What is the BOLD Women’s Leadership Network?

The BOLD Women’s Leadership Network is a pioneering program cultivating courageous leadership in young people during the college years and beyond. BOLD WLN focuses on facilitating opportunities for Scholars’ career development and networking through scholarship funding, programming, and post-graduation fellowships. BOLD WLN introduces young people to a network of powerful women leaders and provides a platform for personal and professional development in order to facilitate meaningful career launches once they graduate from college.

THE PROBLEM & PARADIGM

Why women’s leadership?

The BOLD Women’s Leadership Network seeks to address two issues facing college-age students. The first is the high degree of financial burden that earning an undergraduate degree places on students, particularly those who come from a low- or medium-income background. Student debt is a national crisis, impacting not only young peoples’ ability to thrive after college with wider economic implications, as well as limiting their spending capacity with the loan payment demands.

Additionally, we know that companies benefit from leadership which fosters complexity and a broad array of perspectives, ensuring a continual pipeline of fresh ideas. However, we also know that the largest hurdle for recent graduates is the first promotion — the step up to a managerial role. In order to help Scholars overcome this initial stumbling block, and accelerate their careers, the BOLD Women’s Leadership Circle cultivates opportunities for Scholars to launch directly from college into a workforce pipeline of people of all genders who are committed to more equitable leadership.

THE APPROACH

A leadership-ready workforce

Selected their Sophomore year to participate their Junior and Senior years, BOLD WLN Scholars possess exceptional leadership abilities, critical thinking skills, and the willingness to become agents of change in their campus community and after graduation. Above all, they are committed to the idea of building a pipeline for women to leadership positions in the workplace.

BOLD WLN cohorts receive generous scholarship funding for their Junior and Senior years and have access to other supports and resources through BOLD WLN to develop their leadership skills, help them clarify their career objectives, and provide experiences that will facilitate their transition into that career upon graduation. Scholars are selected on the basis of leadership potential, merit, and financial need, with an eye towards the creation of diverse cohorts.

Upon graduation, because BOLD WLN is designed to facilitate the pathway for exceptional individuals from college to career, BOLD WLN Scholars have the opportunity to apply for a Helen Gurley Brown Fellowship upon graduation. Scholars identify organizations with whom they would like to work for a year upon graduation and develop a role that supports their career goals and contributes to that organization. The Fellowship provides generous funding for graduates’ expenses during that year.

BOLD WLN Success So far

The BOLD Women’s Leadership Network has had enormous impact not only on the personal development of its Scholars, but on their communities as well. Students’ graduate college with little-to-no debt, fundamentally changing how finances determine their opportunity and decision-making. They have been hired by top-tier global employers, and in a staggering 79% of cases are already making as much, or more, than the total income of the household they grew up in. These Scholars are rapidly moving up the leadership ladder at their workplaces, overcoming the initial promotion ceiling.

Those who decide to return to graduate school are able to do so because of their limited student loans – 93% of alumnae report that this was a game changer for their decision-making after college. Of those who received a post-graduate HGB Fellowship, 40% went on to a paid role in that organization.