Event this weekend helps young girls in Philly discover their inner boss
The Citizen Recommends: Bossie Accelerator Plan
Shannon Morales' Repeat Me Forwards links minority candidates with good jobs. This weekend, the Philly Startup Leaders grad will help teen girls achieve their entrepreneurial dreams.
Aug. 20, 2020
Even before she turned seven years former, Shannon Morales had a vision. "I used to take these dreams of being this 'boss business woman,' with a full-on accommodate, walking down some long stairs with a briefcase," she says, laughing at the memory. "Always since then, I always thought Someday I'll be a business concern woman."
She kept a notebook full of business organisation ideas, like her childhood plan to invent…a spray-on lip gloss. "Looking back, that was a horrible idea!" she says. "But information technology was something that I wanted to do so badly that I didn't want to stop thinking about ideas."
Her decision led her, after graduating from William Paterson University in 2014, to the globe of corporate finance. Feeling unfulfilled in that role, and a bit marginalized as an Afro-Latina woman, she started a side hustle, helping minority candidates discover jobs at companies she personally vetted. As interest in her service grew, she realized what she had before her: a fully-realized business opportunity.
In 2017, she launched Echo Me Forward, a name that pays tribute to the notion that the wisdom of previous generations can be echoed, to propel future generations ahead.
She already has seven local clients, with plans to expand into other cities with burgeoning startup ecosystems: Pittsburgh, Detroit, Atlanta, to name a few. Since 2017, she'southward placed more than 120 candidates at companies that value diverseness, equity and inclusion (DEI, for curt).
"This is going to be something that is definitely needed, especially with the racial climate that'due south merely starting to swirl," she says. "Information technology'south definitely not new for me, but it's new for a lot of other people. Before I had to do a lot of explaining, when employers would say 'We want the best talent, why does it have to be diverse talent?' Now, information technology's 'We need diverse talent, and can you become it quicker?'"
Morales is also the Philly director of Techqueria, the national nonprofit that nurtures and supports Latinx people in tech. And Stealth.ify, the app she created to gamify social distancing, is currently undergoing a rebranding.
This past spring Morales graduated, equally role of a accomplice of xx rising business organization leaders, from Philly Startup Leaders, the local incubator that nurtures entrepreneurs. And in the spirit of paying that forward, this weekend she'll exist hosting Echo Me Frontwards's offset always (online) mini-accelerator plan for teen girls, ages 13 to 17.
Called Bossie—as a way to put a more positive spin on the often negative criticism that girls with power are too bossy—the free two-24-hour interval plan volition feature viii hours of workshops facilitated by other female business leaders, and will culminate in a pitch contest on Sun, where 10 contestants can compete to win $250 or more than. Girls with all levels of business experience and interest are welcome. Programming will take place via Zoom.
"It's all about how far you desire to have it this weekend—sit back, relax and enjoy the programming, or get out there and be all about spreading your wings and beingness competitive," Morales says.
Facilitators will include Noa Mintz, a student at Brown University who, at the age of 10, founded Nannies by Noa, a successful nanny placement service in New York City and the Hamptons. Girls can also larn from Zia Heller, caput of finance for The Well, a digital and concrete wellness platform headquartered in New York, and Ashley Aydin of VamosVentures, which supports under-represented founders, and more. Funding for the programme comes directly from Repeat Me Forward.
"I merely wanted to create something where I could pull all these girls together and say Hey listen, I created this program especially for yous," Morales says. "And we want others in the customs to actually stand behind the mission of helping girls go more aware of their leadership skills. We need to exercise more [in terms of] empowering them to use their free energy towards something productive."
Saturday, August 22, noon to 5pm; Sun, August 23, ane:30pm to 3:30pm, with pitch competition from four:30pm to 5:30pm.
Header photo: Repeat Me Forward founder Shannon Morales 
Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/bossie-accelerator-program/
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