“You
gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop
to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
On April 25th,
YWSE will partner with the SWIB “I Don’t Know to CEO” conference mission to
educate, motivate and inspire you to achieve success at every point in your
career.
In a very special two-part YWSE workshop “Reaching In, Reaching Out” we will hear the stories of and interact with successful local social entrepreneurs, Emily Arnold-Fernandez, Esq. founder of Asylum Access, Niko Everett, founder of Girls for a Change and co-founder of Young Women Social Entrepreneurs, and Sarita Vasa, founding executive director of ArtWallah.
Join us for the first 2 workshops of our Social Entrepreneurship track in 2009!
In Part 1, we will have an engaging panel discussion surrounding the themes of courage, ingenuity and…...fun! This part will be moderated by YWSE board member, Han Pham
of Hyphen Magazine.
In Part 2, we carry our lessons into a focused, supportive and creative
environment, where we will explore the social issues that are important to each
of us, then identify the very first or next successive steps we can take toward
being confident and successful local and global community change agents.
Date: Saturday,
April 25, 2009; 9:30am - 3:30pm
Location: Annenberg Auditorium, Stanford University
Cost:
$5 general public; FREE for Stanford students and YWSE members (YWSE members, check your Inbox for passcode)
More Info and register by April 20th: http://swib.stanford.edu/
Read the bios of our amazing panelists...
Emily E.
Arnold-Fernandez, Esq.
Asylum Access, Founder and Executive Director
Emily
Arnold-Fernandez, the founder and executive director of Asylum Access, is a social
entrepreneur and human rights pioneer. Asylum Access fosters refugee
legal aid efforts in Africa, Asia and Latin
America that empower refugees to assert their rights
to safety, employment, education and a new life. For her innovative
approach to the global refugee crisis, Emily was recognized as Pomona College ’s
Inspirational Young Alumna in 2006 and awarded the prestigious Echoing Green
fellowship in 2007. She was recently selected to be honored by the Dalai
Lama as one of 50 “Unsung Heroes of Compassion” from around the world.
A lawyer who
has advocated nationally and internationally for the human rights of women,
children, and other vulnerable groups, Emily first became involved in refugee
rights in 2002, when she represented refugees in refugee status determination
(RSD) proceedings conducted by the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees in Cairo , Egypt .
Her first client was a young Liberian who had fled to Egypt
to avoid being abducted and forced to fight as a child soldier. Because
he was initially denied legal status as a refugee, he was at continual risk of
being arrested, detained and deported by Egyptian authorities unless he could
get the decision reversed -- and he only had one chance to do so. Emily’s
legal advocacy won her client protection and safety in Egypt until his eventual
resettlement in the U.S.
Prior to founding Asylum Access, Emily worked on gender discrimination issues
at Equal Rights Advocates, including the landmark case against Wal-Mart, the
largest employment discrimination case in U.S.
history. Previously, she was involved in a variety of international human
rights projects: she conducted research on Spain's attempt to extradite General
Augusto Pinochet of Chile to stand trial for crimes against humanity, served as
Rapporteur for the African NGO Refugee Protection Network, and collaborated
with a Nigerian human rights organization to draft a marriage and divorce code
that protects women's rights while complying with Shar'ia (Koranic law)
mandates.
Emily is particularly passionate about Asylum Access, however, because it has
the power to transform refugee rights from paper promises in international
conventions to actual, on-the-ground empowerment in individual lives.
"For half a century, refugees have had international legal rights to live
safely, to seek employment and send their children to school and start
rebuilding their lives. But those rights are meaningless unless they are
respected on the ground," she says. "Asylum Access provides a
rare opportunity to fill a gaping hole in our human rights system -- by making
refugee rights a reality for real people."
Niko Everett
Founder, Girls for A Change
Co-Founder, Young Women Social Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneur-in-Residence, CSE Capital
Niko moved to the
San Francisco Bay Area when she was 22 and has been working create social
change ever since. An "Entrepreneur-in-Residence" at the
investment firm she shares with her husband, Niko is a serial entrepreneur with
hands-on experience in creating and funding a vision, implementing action,
ensuring results and inspiring excellence in teams, companies and
organizations. Most recently, Niko co-founded and was the Co-CEO of Girls For A
Change, an organization that empowers young women to create social change. Niko
started and grew Girls For A Change into a national organization with investors
and corporate partners that include Sephora Inc, Bank of America, Intel and
American Express. In addition, Niko worked closely with the venture
capital/philanthropy community, including Draper Richards and Franklin and
Catherine Johnson Family Foundation, to raise growth capital to fund Girls for
a Change's national expansion. Previous to Girls for a Change, Niko co-founded
Young Women Social Entrepreneurs, a national organization that promotes women
with socially-conscious agendas to reach positions of leadership in business,
government, and not-for-profit work. She also founded the Silicon Valley Girls
Coalition which ensures the health and well being of all young women in the Silicon Valley and co-authored the Women and
Girls 2000 & Beyond Strategies for Success report published in 2001 by the
Office of Women’s Advocacy.
Niko's leadership, entrepreneurship and results have been recognized by The Women's High Tech Coalition, Fast Company magazine's Social Capitalist Awards and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. A Draper Richards Foundation Fellow, she was named in The Silicon Valley Business Journal as one of the "40 Under 40" up and comers in the Silicon Valley and as a Community Hero by NPR.
Niko is a
frequent speaker on social entrepreneurship and has addressed audiences at The
Haas Business School, The Stanford Graduate School of Business, The World
Affairs Council, Idealist's National College Activist Conference, The HR
National Conference, The Social Enterprise Alliance and the National Women's
Leadership Coalition. Niko's work has been covered by Newsweek, The
Washington Post and The San Jose Mercury News amongst others. She
holds a BA from Tufts University .
Niko is currently partnering with her husband to purchase, lead and grow a
business in the renewable energy or education field. Niko spends some of her
time chasing lions with her 21 month old son.
Sarita Vasa
ArtWallah, Founding Executive Director
Serial Social Entrepreneur and Mother In
1997, Sarita Vasa started a nonprofit called "The Indo-American
Cultural Center" with the intention to raise 20 million to build a
cultural center and multi-media museum on the South Asian Diasporic
Experience. She pushed this model for about 2 years, and at the young
age of 21, was unable to raise 20 million. With the several thousands
she was able to raise, Sarita morphed her plan into starting a
progressive arts organization which could serve her mission of
showcasing the South Asian experience through festivals, and community
based programming. She ran this organization for nine years, and
created a nationally recognized annual arts festival,
a two edition publication, a youth arts mentorship program, amongst
other programs. She successfully created a revenue model for the
organization that was based on 1/3 event revenue, 1/3 community
contributions, and 1/3 grants. As the Founding Executive Director of
ArtWallah, Sarita built this grassroots nonprofit from the ground up,
and ultimately built a succession plan so the organization could survive beyond herself.
Sarita's thirst for building an enterprise has continued through
motherhood. As a mother of a young toddler, she wanted to develop a
way to be a hands on mom, while making a difference in people's lives.
She most recently has started a consulting practice that combines life
coaching and project management, and works 10 hours a week serving
clients, and spends the remaining 100+ hours a week reading to,
traveling with, and enjoying her daughter.
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