There are many reasons why we—Caitlin Chastain and Christina Cowperthwait—both decided to attend Leaderhip exCHANGE’s 2019 Women and Innovation program in Raleigh, NC. During the program we worked with other female college students from various colleges, such as Converse College and Elon. This experience was unique for us because it allowed us to collaborate with students outside of our major and Raleigh. Both of us are  involved in Meredith College’s entrepreneurship program and have learned to love and appreciate the language of entrepreneurship. HQ Raleigh was a perfect setting to further our entrepreneurial education because it is similar to undergoing  a real life case study. If biology majors have labs we, have collaborative workspaces like HQ. Our entreprenurship professor Dr. Nathan Woolard gives us GOOB assignments “Get Out Of the Building” to encourage us to experience real world business scenarios and HQ gives us that outlet.

We knew this program would align with the entrepreneurship values we learned at Meredith when we found out the program was in collaboration with HQ Raleigh.

It is these six values that contribute to HQ Raleigh’s unique culture and environment for young aspiring entrepreneurs, like us. HQ Raleigh goes beyond just providing a space for entrepreneurs and instead fosters a community of collaboration and innovative. We believe that HQ Raleigh and Meredith College have a similar mission statements. Both HQ and Meredith College are dedicated to giving young individuals a platform to succeed and equip them with the necessary tools to do so.

During our time at Leadership exCHANGE, we both were able to use our knowledge from Meredith College’s entrepreneurship minor, as well as HQ to discuss issues our society faces when talking about women as leaders.  It is interesting how we were able to look at the world’s problems and try to solve them through an entrepreneurial lens. We were shocked to find out that women make up 51% of the population but we only make up 14.6% of executive officers, 8.1% of top earners, and 4.6% of Fortune 500 CEOS. In politics, women are statistically more likely to cross party lines to pass crucial legislation but women still only make 23.4% of Congressional seats and 25% of Senators. Women of color face an even wider gap.
Women and Innovation is unique to other programs because it pushed us to use our education, talents, and passions to become unique critical thinkers and successful leaders all while getting course credit! The Women and Innovation program opened a number of doors for us where we met many female entrepreneurs in Raleigh and listen to their stories.

Leadership exCHANGE celebrates its 20th Annual Global Leadership Prague program July 1-30! Interested in attending???? Upcoming women’s programs include the August 1-15 Women & Leadership Program in Prague and the January 2020 Women & Innovation Program in Raleigh. Find out more information at: www.leadershipexchange.co. Meredith students receive priority status in the application process!