The She Means Business Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering young women, held a speaker series event tonight called 'Designed to Lead: Blueprints. Break Through's, and Bold Leadership.'
The event is geared towards spotlighting women who are redefining leadership across STEM, construction, architecture, and professional services.
Tonight, everyone gathered at the discovery museum in downtown Reno.
During the event women in these fields shared their stories of breaking barriers, claiming space and leading with confidence in traditionally male-dominated industries.
These events are quarterly, and tonight they featured a powerhouse panel of four women speakers.
Alli Villines, the founder and executive director of She Means Business, tells us about the panel "They've paved the way in male-dominated fields and created opportunity for themselves."
She says their nonprofit is all about teaching students' high school to college age all about entrepreneurship while making it attainable and approachable.
"We believe that entrepreneurship is all about providing opportunity and freedom for yourself, so we want to encourage young girls to get started quicker with having something that they're really passionate about, and we believe that's through business."
Villines says providing young women the opportunity to have financial freedom and grow independence is a huge win. And as showcased tonight, having women in male-dominated fields is important for growth.
"It's important because everything that underlies what an entrepreneur is starts with advocacy, putting yourself out there, having a vision, and actually following through. So when we see women paving the way in a lot of male-dominated fields, we just see them skyrocket into their confidence and really uplift themselves, not only as a business owner but also themselves personally."
Villines says they have sponsors and organizations all supporting this movement, including eight more businesses that are teaming up with She Means Business to help even more women pave the way into male-dominated spaces.
"We have quite the diverse group of ladies: high schoolers, college students, and ladies that are in our scholarship program building their businesses. Currently we've got them here with their mentors. We have mentors that are here, seasoned business owners, so it's a great variety of women."
Villines says she's really proud to see all of the young women get so involved in entrepreneurship.
"We actually have nine women in our female founders program; these are ladies who are 18 to 24 years old, and they've just blown me away just showing how incredible they are and how interested they already are in their business."
Adding, "That's just multiplied by so many events like this; it's amazing that so many women are young and ambitious in this community, and this is a place really for them to gather."
You can always follow She Means Business on social media, or if you'd like to check out one of their events, you visit the She Means Business website.
They're always looking for speakers, donors, partners, and mentors if you'd like to get more involved.
