PPG and the PPG Foundation recently joined Junior Achievement (JA) of Western Pennsylvania for the 2023 JA Empower Her Summit, an interactive and impactful leadership and life development experience for young women in grades nine to 12.
PPG teams up with Junior Achievement for Empower Her Summit
Inspirational role models, shared their experiences to empower the next generation of leaders. Additional PPG employee volunteers joined local women entrepreneurs and executives from 11 major corporations to provide their advice and journey to success.
“Programs like Empower Her show girls that what you learn in the classroom or throughout daily life experiences can be applied in creative and innovative ways in fulfilling careers,” said Malesia Dunn, executive director, PPG Foundation and corporate global social responsibility. “It was inspiring to witness the students interact and connect with local leaders and begin to create pathways to their future success.”
As part of the summit, attendees participated in interactive sessions on budgeting and saving, professional development, entrepreneurship, leadership, and resume building. They also heard from keynote speaker, Alicia Kozak, an international advocate, and Internet safety expert, whose extraordinary life story exemplifies the strength of the human spirit’s ability to overcome adversity and to deny defeat. At age 13, Alicia became the first widely reported Internet-related child abduction victim, after she was kidnapped and held captive by an Internet predator.
In the U.S. and around the world, PPG has held a partnership with JA for over a decade.
Recently in Brazil, PPG employees hosted 80 high school students at our operations in Sumaré and Gravataí for an Innovation Camp that challenged students to think of ways to reduce waste and find more efficient ways of using and reusing water, topics related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The Innovation Camp was held in partnership with Junior Achievement and aimed to encourage students to find innovative solutions using agile methodologies on a specific theme. Our employee volunteers mentored the teams of students, and the best projects were recognized by local PPG leadership.
JA is dedicated to giving young people the knowledge and skills they need to own their economic success, plan for their futures, and make smart academic and economic choices. JA's programs—in the core content areas of work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy—ignite the spark in young people to experience and realize the opportunities and realities of work and life in the 21st century.
Read more from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on how JA is harnessing the potential of next-generation female leadership HERE.
To learn more about how PPG volunteers support students in their communities, click here.