Project We Believe

In honor of Women Wednesdays, I'm featuring Project We Believe which is founded by two young women. Mahnoor Yawar (also a Smithie) , one of the co-founders, first told me about the project a few months ago.

I've been impressed by both the idea and the execution of Project We Believe. Participating is easy-- you send in a photo and a quote that inspires you and promotes tolerance. They have also recently started their "Celebrating Women Everyday" video series which features women and the various reasons they like being themselves.

I find their mission statement interesting because they say that they are more than just a movement. Since many organizations aren't even close to becoming a movement I was very intrigued by what else they aspire to be. They write that participants are also taking a "pledge of defiance against the extremists, the dictators, the fear-mongers, the assassins".

I love the simplicity and the scope of Project We Believe and hope you check it out too!

Asian Women's Leadership University (AWLU)

I'm excited to kick off my "Women Wednesday" posts by introducing a project I've been involved with since Fall of 2010.
Since graduation, I've found that a number of my interests intersect with advancing the lives of women around the world through education.

My involvement with the Asian Women's Leadership University (AWLU) is one of those serendipitous moments in life where different connections seem to come together. I met Barbara Hou, President and CEO of the AWLU project, while doing an an international rotation for work in Hong Kong. I met her through another Smith alum who also reconnected me with Barbara when she moved to NYC to pursue her Phd in International Relations. Oddly enough, not only did we both graduate from Smith College but we attended the same high school in San Francisco as well. It is pretty cool to see one of my high school counselors on the donor list because of Barbara's connection to our high school.

The two main reasons the AWLU project has my support are below

1. I believe in the AWLU mission statement below
"Our aim is to establish an international, liberal arts women’s leadership university in Asia. We hope to provide an extraordinary educational opportunity and to create a cadre of women leaders from the region. Our inspiration comes from a deep appreciation for the liberal arts education that we received and our recognition of the need to create more opportunities for women to receive a life-transforming education."

2. I have confidence in the leaders of the project and success of the project. I gain this confidence from the leaders who are transparent, strategic, and professional. I am inspired by the over 50 active volunteers who have mobilized around the world working on everything from market research to creating our Facebook page.



I have a lot more to share about the project in the upcoming weeks but today I wanted to make sure everyone knew about our newly launched website which can be found here and our Facebook page that you should "like" here.