NOMINATIONS NOW BEING ACCEPTED
THROUGH APRIL 11 BY MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE’S
TAKE THE LEAD PROGRAM:

Program’s Participants Featured in the News Media Recently

South Hadley, Mass.—Between now and April 11, Mount Holyoke College is accepting nominations for Take the Lead, the College’s leadership program for idealistic, action-oriented young women who want to make a positive difference in the world.

A flurry of recent news articles has highlighted the accomplishments of last year’s Take the Lead teenage participants. Since January, media coverage on program graduates’ projects has appeared in Seventeen magazine, The Salt Lake Tribune, and The Milford Daily News of Milford, Mass.

As covered in the news articles, graduates of the leadership program return to their communities to implement their individual Take the Lead action projects. In Salt Lake City, for example, Take the Lead graduate Susan Sparrow is leading twenty peers in a campaign for House Bill 81, proposed legislation to study gender-based salary inequities among Utah's state employees. The bill has already won support from the citizen interest group Utah Progressive Network and Representative Ty McCartney, D-Salt Lake. Last month, Sparrow testified before Utah's House Government Operations Committee and held a Valentine's Day bake sale on Capitol Hill, selling large cookies and 34 percent smaller ones (symbols of the 66 cents women earn for every dollar men earn).

Last year, the program attracted a diverse group of 38 high school students from across the country. While on the college campus last October, they attended workshops and activities on building leadership skills. This year, forty participants will be selected for the program, which will be held October 2-5 at the women’s college in South Hadley, Mass.

Explains Patricia VandenBerg, program director, “We’re looking for spirited, bright young women who want to tackle an issue in their school or community. Through April 11, we welcome nominations from adult mentors who know sophomores in high school who would benefit from Take the Lead.”

Community leaders, teachers, guidance counselors, principals, and headmasters as well as other adult mentors may nominate up to three high school sophomores for Take the Lead. Each nominee will receive a letter from Mount Holyoke President Joanne V. Creighton inviting her to apply to the program. Adults interested in nominating sophomores may call 413-538-3500 to receive information and nomination forms. Nominations are also accepted online at www.mtholyoke.edu/go/takethelead.

Last year the competitive program attracted more than 600 applicants from around the country. Participants were selected by a Mount Holyoke review committee who evaluated students on the basis of their potential for leadership and making a difference, as demonstrated by their academic, extracurricular, and community involvement as well as their insight and motivation.

Widely recognized for educating generations of women leaders, Mount Holyoke College is the nation’s oldest institution of higher education for women. Take the Lead continues the institution’s proud tradition of leadership. Learn more about the program at www.mtholyoke.edu/go/takethelead.