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Kellie's work has been featured at the prestigious Clinton Global Initiative for three consecutive years since 2009. In 2010, she was a Deputy Topic Leader for the Clinton Global Initiative, helping to design the "Harnessing Human Potential" track of the Annual Meeting. Read Kellie's full bio here.
Happy International Women’s Week! Did you know that Friday March 8th is International Women’s Day? It’s a day for celebrating the accomplishments of girls and women-globally.
I oversee an initiative at Thunderbird School of Global Management called Thunderbird for Good. I’m charged with taking the school’s world-class management expertise and access to business leaders to provide practical training to entrepreneurs in emerging markets. Most often, we work with women entrepreneurs who are starting and growing small enterprises. Over the last 8 years, over 70,000 women have participated in Thunderbird for Good programs across 25 different countries. These women run small businesses in everything from chicken farming to the production of fiberglass motorcycle parts. And they are job generators, employing from a few family members up to hundreds of workers!
I’m often asked why a business school that exists to educate MBA’s and high potential executives would spend so much energy on training women small business owners worldwide. The answer is an easy one… business schools teach us how to recognize good investments, and investing in women makes good business sense. Women are just about the best investment one can make, yet an incredibly underutilized resource.
This is one of the reasons why I am so excited about the launch of Half the Sky Movement: the Game. Released this week, the Facebook game leverages the global awareness brought about by the Half the Sky movement that developed out of Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s bestselling book: Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. Leveraging the power of both social media and gaming, Half the Sky has the potential to make a big impact by giving players the opportunity to both learn more about the needs of women in developing countries and get involved. While the power of social media might be apparent to most, the potential of using game playing for good is less widely known. Games for Change, the developer of the Half the Sky Facebook game, is exploring that opportunity.
Games are also just plain fun. People all around the globe face challenges with work-life balance. There just isn’t enough time for all the demands of home, a business, and education. But I have found that people almost always make time for things they enjoy - even if only for a few moments. If gaming can make learning fun, people are much more likely to squeeze game play (and consequentially, learning) into their day.
So I’m going to celebrate International Women’s Week by playing the Half the Sky: the Game, and learn about the inequities women face around the world. And if this game can simultaneously help educate and raise awareness, then power it up! It just might be the best way to help women worldwide “level up!”
Intel is a supporter of Half the Sky Movement - The Game. Follow us on Twitter @Intelinvolved.
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