“A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself.” — Oprah Winfrey

With the launch of 1,000 Dreams Fund’s inaugural MentorHERDay, we delivered hope — and plenty of good advice — to a group of 100 aspiring young girls at successful events in Washington, D.C.,  San Francisco, and Dallas.

Our new national MentorHER Day Initiative helps the advancement of young women in the workplace while raising awareness about the importance of female mentorship. This is so important because 70% of young women in the U.S. say they do not have a mentor, according to 1DF’s State of the American Girl Research.

“We know from our research and ongoing work in this space that most young women would love to have a mentor, but they have no idea where to start,” says 1DF founder and CEO, Christie Garton. “With MentorHER Day, we’re providing that starting point while proving that it doesn’t take a significant amount of time or resources to make a big impact on someone’s life – and the same is true for mentorship!”

Each of the events started with a networking session, followed by a panel discussion comprised of a diverse group of leading female executives. Attendees were then connected with their matched mentor for a live 60 minute MentorHER session.

And not only did we make some amazing connections happen (one of our students received an internship offer during her session!), our events featured a panel conversation with successful women business executives and community leaders who kicked off the event with their advice on what is takes to reach success in

Check out this amazing list of panelists we were so honored to have in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Dallas.

Washington, D.C. Panelists

• Mindy Fetterman, EVP, Editorial Director and the Editorial Lead for Burson, Cohn & Wolfe
• Janai Nelson, Associate Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
• Dr. Maria Emanuel Ryan, DDS, PhD, Vice President and Chief Dental Officer, Colgate-Palmolive Company
• Anastasia Staten, Executive Director of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) Foundation
• Andrea Short, Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Verizon Public Sector
• Danielle Wivell-Wagner, Operations Manager, The Malala Fund
• Priscilla Zhou, Director, Public Affairs – Corporate Affairs & Communications, HARMAN

San Francisco Panelists

• Kristen Campbell, Chief Financial Officer, PayNearMe/Handle Financial
• Lindsay Baker, Vice President of Sustainability and Wellbeing, WeWork
• Megan Bloomer, Vice President of Sustainability & CSR, The CheesecakeFactory Incorporated; Founder and CEO of RAMSHEAD Inc.
• Arthi Chandran, Vice President, Health Economics and Outcomes Research, Becton Dickinson
• Mimi Li, Head of ML & Risk Products, Amazon Prime

Dallas Panelists

• Kelly Barker, Founder, Prep Your Skin
• Robin Corbin, National Vice President/Independent Consultant, Arbonne International
• Felicia Johnson, Founder and Managing Director, The Gatson Group
• Jourdan Kerl, Content Coordinator, Mavs Gaming and 1,000 Dreams Fund Twitch BroadcastHer Recipient
• Penne Thornett, General Manager, EltaMD
• Uni Yost, CEO/Founder, GoAskJay

We’re so grateful to have the support of Colgate-Palmolive and Kendra Scott as our national sponsors of MentorHER Day along with supporting partner HARMAN. As well, we’re thrilled to be hosting the events at WeWork; they’re also helping recruit mentors from their membership network in each city!

“Colgate is proud to be part of the inaugural MentorHER Day to demonstrate the tremendous value of building networks and mentoring relationships,” said Paula Davis, Chief Communications Officer, Colgate-Palmolive Company. “We are grateful to 1DF for inviting our Chief Dental Officer Dr. Maria Emanuel Ryan to serve on the panel in Washington, and equally proud that Colgate employees have signed on to become mentors to future women leaders.”

In partnership with 1DF, Colgate will be implementing an ongoing virtual mentorship program to connect its employees nationwide with the young women that 1DF serves as part of its commitment to MentorHER Day 2019. Kendra Scott is providing all MentorHER Day panelists with a gift from the Kendra Scott jewelry line and is also matching employees with 1DF students for ongoing mentoring sessions as part of their commitment.

“We could not be more thrilled to support 1DF and MentorHER Day,” said Tom Nolan, Chief Marketing and Revenue Officer, Kendra Scott. “The initiative’s mission is in line with our ongoing support for, and celebration of, women in business.”

We can’t wait for our next MentorHER Day events — we’ll be adding more cities throughout 2020! Click here for more info.