Redefining leadership and fostering equity

Sadie Nash Leadership Project engages young women and gender-expansive youth of color in a range of programs that grow their capacity to envision and create change in their lives and their communities. By increasing the participation of young women and gender-expansive youth in social, political and economic decision-making, Sadie Nash seeks to question and redefine the nature of leadership and to promote perspectives and practices that are cooperative, accountable, ethical and effective.

Sadie Nash is part of the First Lady's Reach Higher initiative, which gives underrepresented youth the encouragement, tools, strategies and resources to overcome the obstacles they face and reach their college graduation day.

Our employee resource group Women on Wall Street (WOWS) is partnering with Sadie Nash on a series of volunteer experiences throughout 2015. Inspired by Sadie Nash’s commitment to developing talent, WOWS members are offering informational interviews and job-shadowing to these rising leaders.

Additionally, we partner with Sadie Nash to provide young women and gender-expansive youth a range of college access and persistence services to ensure they not only get to college but graduate. Combining a supportive network of peers and mentors and a critical analysis of educational inequity, the program prepares participants to take ownership of their educational journey and meet head-on the challenges they will face as first-generation college students. These services include workshops for high school juniors on college prep and educational justice, a yearlong NashU program for seniors applying to college, trips to colleges, one-on-one college advising, Sister Circle discussion groups for alumnae in college, mentorship opportunities and more.

By age 24, only 12 percent of US students from low-income families will earn a bachelor’s degree compared to 73 percent of their higher-income peers. 

Source: Engle, Jennifer and O'Brien, Colleen (2007). Demography is Not Destiny: Increasing the Graduation Rates of Low-Income College Students at Large Public Universities.

Over 80% of Sadie Nash alumnae graduate from college, compared to the NYC average of only 21%.

Photo credit (banner and teaser image): Breukellen Riesgo

sadienash.org

• National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, The White House, 2013
• Excellence in Summer Learning Award, The National Summer Learning Association, 2010
• New York Times GOLD PRIZE for Overall Management Excellence, 2010

Meet "The Fixer," SNLP alumna (2002) Shanai Watson