Women's Empowerment

OVERVIEW

The Rose Bowl Institute Women's Empowerment Symposium is an annual program for high school juniors, seniors, and college students. Participants learn from female business leaders, athletes, and local and national education leaders within the inspirational setting of the Rose Bowl Stadium. In 2021 RBi took the annual Symposium virtual resulting in almost 1,200 registrations from 33 states and 8 countries for six-plus hours over three days engaging with 31 female, diverse speakers.  Over the years, speakers have included former Secretary Madeleine Albright, actress/activist Sophia Bush, women’s soccer stars Brandi Chastain and Julie Foudy, Alibaba Pictures President Zhang Wei, Olympic Gymnast Simone Biles, actress/activist Alyssa Milano and many other accomplished female leaders. 

While women are our main target demographic, it’s also important for men to join this movement. We need to empower each other. Young female and male leaders of the future have benefited from the Rose Bowl Institute’s approach to learning from sports values and experiences.

In addition, the Institute added back an in-person Women’s Empowerment Luncheon on the floor of the Rose Bowl, where over 200 young women heard inspirational talks. Most of the attendees were from underprivileged backgrounds. They engaged with former UCLA Gymnastics Coach Valorie Kondos Field, winner of seven NCAA championships and Pac-12 Coach of the Century, and star UCLA gymnast Katelyn Ohashi, winner of the ESPY for Best Play and Viral Play of the year, 2019, for her perfect 10 floor performance that has been viewed over 250,000,000 times. The messages, which were very well received, were that you can succeed by putting your mind to the task, whatever that may be.

These experiences, both in person and the virtual symposium are aimed at increasing confidence in young women – and understanding in young men – as they face life in and out of athletics. These are underlying values necessary for learning, part of the education that young people need and do not necessarily get in their formal schooling.

The fall virtual program will once again highlight the three pillars of the Rose Bowl Institute: Sportsmanship, Leadership, and Citizenship through its key panel topics focused on empowering and inspiring.

KEY IMPACT & GOALS

To instill leadership, ethics, confidence, and character-based skills in the mindsets of young females and males by providing inspirational and empowering programming over three days.

The Symposium provides insight and working knowledge of societal and cultural topics, health, and more presented by female experts, business leaders, and former college and professional athletes.