LAUNCH Program Accelerates Leadership and Engagement with High School Girls

The LAUNCH (Learn, Aspire, Understand, Navigate, Connect, Highlight) program transforms the natural curiosity of high school girls into a voice of leadership in the STEM industry. The nonprofit FortyX80 created the comprehensive program for high school girls to gain insight into their leadership style and be equipped with the confidence to pursue a successful career path in STEM. 

LAUNCH integrates the Athena leadership curriculum, interactive portfolio development and professional mentors working in STEM. Through their engagement, LAUNCH participants experience growth as leaders and exit the program prepared to create positive changes in their chosen career path.

Part of the first LAUNCH cohort, Kamsi Odigboh reflected on her experience and what she learned by participating in the program. Here’s what she had to say:

Throughout my entire life, fundamental aspects of leadership that guide one to live a fruitful and fulfilling life never significantly impacted my view of the world until I joined the LAUNCH program that taught the
ATHENA leadership model. 

Throughout the course of the program, I became a more extroverted person as I advocated constantly, and I came to truly understand what was required to become a powerful woman capable of leading her peers and demonstrating the true meaning of leadership. In all honestly, when I first joined this program, I believed it to be another tedious program that would not impact me in the slightest.

However, I was completely wrong—my experience with this program was phenomenal. LAUNCH was an experience that I could never forget; I created multiple memories with the wonderful people that attended the program alongside me and shared similar aspirations as I did. Not to mention, everyone in attendance enjoyed the presence of the lovely coordinators of this event, Marie Pelloni and Maria Fattore. I genuinely cannot thank the two of them enough for allowing me to partake in this extraordinary experience as well as introducing me to such an astounding panel of empowering women.

To start off, I would like to thank the author of Becoming ATHENA, Martha Mayhood Mertz for introducing the eight principles of leadership to people such as myself. One may ask, what do these eight principles encompass? Well, the eight principles are live authentically, learn constantly, advocate fiercely, act courageously, foster collaboration, build relationships, give back and celebrate. While most of these principles are self-explanatory as to what they incorporate, I still want to take the time to delve into the principles that resonated with me personally: learn constantly, advocate fiercely and build relationships. 

First, learning constantly involves asking questions, educating oneself about varied topics, etc. This principle impacted me considerably because of how much I appreciate and honor this principle. I constantly educate myself about prevalent social issues and discover new ways that I can help in relation to these problems. Due to the fact that I am an analytical thinker, asking questions and constantly learning about new topics further empowers me to embrace that characteristic of myself. Evidently, a lack of constant exposure to new information, would stunt one’s ability to cultivate new ways to becoming a dedicated leader. 

Secondly, advocating fiercely can be defined as aggressively teaching others about a cause or issue that one may deem as important for others to care about. Among my peers, I am widely known as the enthusiastic advocate that will stop at nothing but to get their point across, and I am proud to admit that everything about that statement is true. I truly am a fierce advocate that will stop at nothing when it comes to educating others related to racial inequality, racial bias, gender inequality, inequality regarding sexual orientation, etc. It touched my heart that LAUNCH was able to allow me to do just that. Evidently, the ability to recognize injustices within society can help me become an incredible leader among my counterparts. 

Lastly, building relationships—it is such a self-explanatory principle, but also an important principle. Without healthy and strong relationships, one cannot truly create an environment competent of eliciting leadership.

Overall, my entire experience participating in LAUNCH has been one of constant learning and improvement of my character. Without a doubt, my peers and my mentors would all agree that the LAUNCH program has greatly influenced my rapid development as a young woman interested in STEM fields and social justice.