Women unite to inspire female-led teams for Do Good Challenge

Sara Herald, the associate director of social entrepreneurship at the Center for Social Value Creation in the business school, stands with graduate student Kirsten Craft and philanthropists and panelists Tonia Wellons and Carla Decker to discuss women and social change at the Ladies First event in Stamp Student Union on Monday, Nov. 2.

About 100 women gathered in Stamp Student Union on Monday night to promote women’s involvement and empowerment in social change at the University of Maryland.

The sold-out Ladies First event, organized by the Do Good Challenge planning team, called for gender parity with a goal to promote a larger number of female leaders on teams for the Do Good Challenge working to affect social impact.

“Women tend to think that it’s harder for them to be good leaders, and I think that is what needs to change,” said graduate student Kirsten Craft, who moderated the discussion. “Women need to change their mindset and realize that they are capable, that they do have good ideas and know how to lead and be willing to take those steps.”

The Do Good Challenge is a student-created prize competition that gathers community support for advancing social enterprises over an eight-week period. In the spring, team finalists are chosen and evaluated for prizes up to $5,000 to go toward a particular social cause.

READ MORE: Going for the good: Annual Do Good Challenge honors service organizations

Historically, women have been underrepresented in the challenge, Craft said.

About 38 percent of the teams that have made it to the Do Good Challenge finals have been female-led, and the planning team is trying to boost those numbers, said Sara Herald, the associate director of social entrepreneurship at the Center for Social Value Creation in the business school.

“That’s something that we’re committed to changing,” Herald said. “We thought about ways in which we could reach out to female students across Maryland and inspire and empower them to lead social change here at UMD.”

At the event, the Do Good Challenge planning team announced the Ladies First Fund, a $500 seed fund people can apply for that will allow female students looking to inspire social change take part in the Do Good Challenge and pilot projects.

The Ladies First Fund and the event were created to help improve local and global communities and to help foster an attitude in female students that is characterized by confidence in their own ideas.

READ MORE: Business symposium spotlights Do Good Challenge participant projects

Philanthropists and panelists Carla Decker, Pamela Rothenberg, Tonia Wellons and Jennifer Lockwood­-Shabat came together for a discussion and dinner at the event as well, to share their stories and advocate for women to take a stand.  

The panelists came from different backgrounds and gave advice to female students seeking to succeed in their own philanthropies.

For women, overcoming obstacles fearlessly, creating strong networks and having an entrepreneurial mindset is important, yet often unnoticed, Lockwood-Shabat said.

A recurrent theme in the panelists’ words was to not allow others to define capability, and to instead use fear as a tool to create impactful change. Women should also try to set clear goals, whether they are small or ambitious, to begin efforts to mend on societal problems, Rothenberg said.

“Be really clear about goals, even if they’re daunting and terrifying. So much satisfaction comes from taking chances,” she said.

Leadership qualities and widely held expectations of women were another key topic of conversation at the event. Decker said at one point, a male coworker told her that in order for her to be happy, she had to lower her expectations. But at the end of the day, she said,  that is not true — a woman is the sum of her own experiences, both successes and failures.

READ MORE: Miles for Smiles, Press Uncuffed place first in Do Good Challenge

Several students who attended the event sought to promote female empowerment, believing in the importance of female participation in on-campus events like the Do Good Challenge because of the array of opportunities they have to offer.

Junior information systems major Adrienne Baer competed in the Do Good Challenge twice with “Gift to Uplift” on a team with mostly women.

“There are so many awesome females and ladies who build me up, and give people confidence to do things that they really care about, and to dive right in,” Baer said. “I want every female on campus to feel empowered to do something that they care about, whether it’s for a social cause like this or in any realm of business or entrepreneurship.”