Founded in 1997, Women of Tomorrow encourages women to help other women. Its model is unique and effective. Highly accomplished professional women meet with small groups of at-risk girls in public high schools, once a month, to discuss ways to overcome obstacles and to provide skills for future success. Women of Tomorrow operates in partnership with public school districts, and all activities are held during the school day. Schools select at-risk girls for participation, and factors for inclusion often include income level, victims of abuse, students with disabilities, the likelihood of a student dropping out of high school, and/or girls at risk for joining gangs, using drugs, participating in criminal activity, getting pregnant or academic, social, behavioral, medical and other risk factors. Jennifer Valoppi, a former news anchor at WTVJ NBC 6 in Miami, in conjunction with then NBC 6 President and General Manager Don Browne founded the organization. As longtime supporters of women and minorities in the workplace and of mentoring as a tool for empowerment, the two colleagues founded Women of Tomorrow. Jennifer hand selected the inaugural 23 founding Women of Tomorrow Mentors who worked with six public high schools in 1997. Today, Women of Tomorrow Mentors come through referrals from existing Mentors and operate out of nearly 200 public high schools annually, reaching close to 4,500 Mentees with its network of over 500 Mentors and a national graduation average of 95% among an at-risk population of girls.
BTIG COLLABORATION AND IMPACT:
For the past five years, Women of Tomorrow has been a recipient of donations through its partnership with BTIG Charity Day. With BTIG’s support, Women of Tomorrow has accepted one hundred additional girls into their mentoring program. Women of Tomorrow continues to turn obstacles into opportunities by providing the exposure, motivation, confidence and opportunities required to create a better future for at-risk teenage girls, their families, and society.David Muir, anchor of ABC World News Tonight, Rebecca Jarvis, Chief Business and Economics Correspondent at ABC News, and entrepreneurs Tommy and Dee Hilfiger have also acted as celebrity guest traders on BTIG Charity Day for fielding calls alongside the firm’s institutional traders on behalf of Women of Tomorrow.
“The Women of Tomorrow Mentor and Scholarship Program is teaching at-risk young women pathways out of poverty, getting them to graduate from high school, move on to higher education and become the building blocks of our communities’ workforce. We are so grateful to BTIG for helping us break the cycles of violence, poverty and abuse, and we thank you for helping us change the world one young woman at a time.”
— Jennifer Valoppi, Founder and President, Women of Tomorrow
