Prime Highlights
- Three Nashville high school students secured a combined $1.25 million in scholarships to Vanderbilt University through the YEW Mentoring Forum.
- The programme connects young women from underserved communities with women entrepreneurs, focusing on STEM and leadership.
Key Facts
- The Nashville YEW Forum is chaired by Sharon W. Reynolds, CEO of DevMar Manufacturing, and sponsored by AllianceBernstein.
- The Enterprising Women Foundation runs the programme across 24 cities nationwide, with Nashville leading in scholarships awarded.
Background
A youth mentoring programme in Nashville is making a real difference in the lives of young women, with its latest cohort walking away with some remarkable results. The Nashville Young Enterprising Women Mentoring Forum, now in its seventh year, has helped three high school students secure a combined $1.25 million in scholarships to Vanderbilt University, with each student receiving $500,000. A fourth student earned a $250,000 scholarship to Belmont University, and more scholarship announcements are still expected from this year’s group.
The forum is chaired by Sharon W. Reynolds, CEO of DevMar Manufacturing and a Nashville native, and is sponsored by global investment management firm AllianceBernstein. It brings together 100 students from five Nashville high schools, connecting them with accomplished women entrepreneurs and business executives who serve as mentors. The programme focuses on STEM, financial literacy and leadership, with a particular emphasis on supporting young women from underserved communities.
Ten students are chosen annually by classmates and coaches based on their character, leadership, and academic achievement. These students then attend the national Enterprising Women Conference, where they receive hands-on leadership training alongside some of the country’s top women business leaders.
Nashville has consistently stood out among the 24 cities where the Enterprising Women Foundation operates, leading the network in the number of scholarships awarded for the national conference.
The 7th Anniversary Nashville YEW Forum is scheduled for April in Washington, D.C. Organisers are seeking community and corporate support to help more young women take part in the programme.
Reynolds summed up the mission simply, saying these young women are future CEOs, engineers, scientists and founders, and investing in them means investing in the economic future of the city and the nation.
