EmpowHer Summit in LA readies young women for college, careers

By Allyson Vergara

On April 28, 2023

It’s the eighth year of the summit, which organizers say brings more than 500 girls across the region together for interactive workshops; exposing them to different career paths, and to talk about social justice issues.

By Allyson Vergara

On April 28, 2023

These teen girls are out to change the world.

The EmpowHer Institute’s 2023 Girls to Greatness Teen Summit, held Friday, April 28 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, focused on preparing the young women for college and the “real world.”

It’s the eighth year of the summit, which organizers say brings more than 500 girls across the region together for interactive workshops; exposing them to different career paths, and to talk about social justice issues.

EmpowHer Institute’s programs are integrated at 13 participating Title I middle and high schools across L.A. County. The nonprofit is celebrating 20 years of mentoring thousands of young women of color throughout the school year.

Dawn L. Brown, EmpowHer Institute’s CEO, said that the summit is one of the largest local gatherings of young women of color. 96% of the selected participants “live at or below the poverty level,” Brown said, so talking with them about big issues in their communities — from generational wealth, to equity in education and in the workplace — is intentional.

“We expose them to careers where young women of color are typically underrepresented. We believe that, if you see her, you can be her,” Brown said before the event. “It’s this amazing day of education, celebration and empowerment.”

The summit does this by bringing in more than 200 mentors to speak to the girls about their careers. The day-long event gives the teens an opportunity to network and learn about different careers in fields they are often underrepresented, from tech to medicine, and how they themselves can make an impact.

Brown cited a young Black high schooler who met an aeronautical engineer at a past summit, and is now studying engineering in college.

“She didn’t know that she could do that until she met another woman in that career field, who looked like her. That’s why this summit is so important — it’s a gateway of exposure, and breaking a cycle of generational poverty.”

At this year’s summit, select groups of eighth and ninth-graders presented social justice projects they had worked on throughout the school year, which highlighted difficult topics such as gun control, mass incarceration and domestic violence.

A “Rising Star” panel and awards ceremony at the end of Friday’s summit celebrated the project winners and EmpowHer program alums, whom officials say use their skills to bring about change and inclusion in the world.

One honoree, Xenia Zolano Doroteo, attended Environmental Charter Middle School and St. Mary’s Academy in Inglewood, and went through the EmpowHer programs before getting into Syracuse University for college. Now an incoming junior, she helped start an affinity group for Mexican American students.

Brown said that Doroteo, and all the EmpowHer, Girls to Greatness participants, are rising stars.

“We are building a new generation in (the workforce), who look like the communities of girls they serve. I believe that BIPOC girls are the voices to be the change in the world.”

This piece was republished from the Los Angeles Daily News.