Girls' Entrepreneurship Summit

The Girls' Entrepreneurship Summit unleashes untapped potential in future female innovators and entrepreneurs.

Do you have an idea that will change the world?

Register for our Day of Innovation to support our Girls particpating in the Girls' Entrepreneurship Summit.

Young women aged 14 to 22 are invited to participate.

The Girls' Entrepreneurship Summit shows girls who they can be by providing them with role models and mentors they can relate to.

Participants learn the skills and resources they need to launch their independent businesses.

Female entrepreneurs from the community lead class and mentor participants. Female innovators from around the world join class at guest speakers.

Participants pitch their businesses to a panel of judges and compete for cash prizes.

When:

Cohorts meet every Saturday 10:00am to 12:30pm from March 25th until April 22nd.

The Girls' Summit ends April 27th during the Day of Innovation. During this all-day event, program participants pitch their businesses, compete for cash prizes, and celebrate their journeys with leading entrepreneurs from the community.

Where:

All cohorts will meet in person at a local business and/or co-working space. Locations for the 2023 summit have not been announced, yet.

Participants in the 2022 Summit met at Gravitate Coworking (Downtown) and the Principal Community Learning Center at Principal Financial Group.

Testimonials from past participants

"I have learned that as a woman, I am able to do anything I put my mind to and create it with the four steps of innovation."

Maya France, 2022 Girls' Entrepreneurship Summit participant

"I learned vital information needed to start a business. Upon completion of the program, I launched my business, Safies' Souffle."

Safie Jackson, Pi515 graduate, ISU student, and local entrepreneur

"I loved watching my two girls in the group grow from the beginning to the end of the program. They left the program with much more confidence."

Joann Leto, 2022 Girls' Entrepreneurship Summit mentor

Where are they now?

Satina Ishibwami, 2020 Girls' Entrepreneurship Summit winner

Shop her small business, Satina | Beauty & SPI Clothing Store, here. Follow her on Instagram @satinaibeauty.

Safie Jackson, 2021 Girls' Enreptreneurship Summit participant

Shop her small business, SafiesSouffle, here. Follow her on Instagram @safiessouffle.

Aerz Johnson, 2022 Girls' Entrepreneurship Summit winner

Currently pursuing a patent for her small business, Big Head Bucket Hats.

Elizabeth Nyamwange, 2022 Girls' Entrepreneurship Summit guest speaker

A senior at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy and inventor of Etana, a low-cost digital identification device for women living without access to the internet or electricity. Winner of HP's Girls Save the World and recipient of $36,000 from MIT's Solv[ED] Youth Innovation Challenge. Check out her website here. Follow her on LinkedIn at enyamwange.