Last year, we held our first American Women of the Year event, in which we honored five women who were stars of their respective schools within our undergraduate student body. These women were role models, trailblazers, and exemplars not just at American, but in the greater D.C. area as well. With our second annual Women of the Year Awards coming up, we decided to check in with our previous winners to see where they are now.
I am still at Nat Geo WILD as a production coordinator! Even at an animal first network, my co-workers and managers encourage her to pursue humor and put her raunchy jokes to work. (See Twitter for detail.) My favorite part about my job is hanging around bad-ass women in television. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go attend a fancy-schmancy TV party with Morgan Freeman and a dairy cow from The Incredible Dr. Pol!
I am still on the Boren Scholarship for Swahili study in Nairobi, Kenya, and used this funding last semester to study in Arusha, Tanzania. I lived with a host family there and took all my classes in Swahili, but the focus of the Nairobi program is development, and includes an internship. I’m interning at Yawezekana, the SACCO of Jamii Bora, one of the biggest microfinance institutions in Kenya. I spend my internship days walking around the informal housing settlements and industrial areas of Nairobi, interviewing SACCO members in Swahili then writing field reports. I have loved speaking with Kenyans about their lives, and the challenges they face in their businesses. Outside of schoolwork I have enjoyed getting to know my host countries, especially through hiking! I hiked mt. Kilimanjaro in the fall and it was one of the best experiences of my life. I also am a contributing editor for The World Mind, AU’s new trade magazine for international studies and public affairs.
Personally I have loved my time abroad and it has confirmed my desire to work abroad one day. I’m trying to come to terms with coming back to the US after this summer! In the fall I’ll be in my senior year and starting coursework for my MA, since I am a part of the BA/MA program for “International Studies: International Economic Relations”. Olivia Montague (KSB ’15) Since graduation, I moved to the NYC Metro area to pursue a career in finance. I work as a financial consultant in the Financial Services Office at Ernst & Young, LLP. My current client is a leading global investment bank on Wall Street. I am also a contributor at HouseofFofanah.com, a dynamic community capturing the digital transformation of fashion brands and premier destination for fashion education online. My monthly series titled “Fashion and Finance in the City” combines my love of fashion and finance background. Volunteering and giving back to the community have always been a huge part of my life and that continues today. I was recently accepted to the NYC iMentor Program which matches high school students in New York City in one-on-one relationships with college-educated mentors. The goal of iMentor is to empower students to graduate high school, succeed in college, and achieve their ambitions. I am also actively involved in the Harvard Business School Summer Venture in Management Program Alumni Association as the NYC Events Chair. I plan and coordinate both networking and social events for alumni in the New York City area. I am the Founder of Styled by Olivia, a style, beauty, and lifestyle blog with a large following at American University (www.styledbyolivia.com). I have continued to grow and build my Styled by Olivia brand in order to inspire women to look and feel their best, regardless of what they are wearing. My goal is to continue to give back and motivate others to reach their full potential.Samantha Kenny (CAS ’16) Receiving CAS Woman of the Year 2015 was a great and exciting honor. The 2016 recipients have only put me in more prestigious company. Immediately following my receipt of this award, I began working with the District of Columbia Department of General Services – Energy and Sustainability Division as a Sustainability Consultant. In this role, I have analyzed the waste flow of the Department of Parks and Recreation Summer Meals Program, serving meals to low income youth in the District. After that project, I began work developing an urban beekeeping initiative for DC government. Since October I have been working on piloting CityBees, a program of my creation hosting beehives that serve the residents of DC as an education, community enrichment, and sustainability tool. I’ll be graduating with my BA in Environmental Studies from the College of Arts and Sciences May 2016 and an MS in Sustainability Management from the Kogod School of Business May 2017. I look forward to continuing my work with DC sustainability and hope to expand into large-scale sustainability and environmental projects in order to work towards a more stable and safe world.Chante Harris (SPA ’15) After graduation I worked as a Workforce Development Specialist for the D.C. Mayor Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Program during which I served as a liaison between over eighty government agencies and the Department of Employment Services (DOES) to promote good relations for future outreach efforts as well as ensure that participants of the program had an enriching and constructive summer work experience.I’m currently living in New York participating as a fellow in the Coro Fellowship Program in Public Affairs in New York City, a nine month graduate level experiential learning program that equips twelve young professionals with the necessary tools to be effective civic leaders. The fellowship consists of seminars, meetings with stakeholders in NYC and multiple placements across various sectors during which fellows are expected to complete high level projects at organizations. Throughout the fellowship I have worked at the East Harlem District Public Health Office, Make the Road New York, Transport Workers Union Local 100, Forest City Ratner Co., and am now at Center for Court Innovation. My final placement will be at Roosevelt Institute, and I’m super excited to be working with the Next Generation Blueprint for 2016, a campaign that identifies the issues millennials care about and calls for actions to those issues from local, state, and national elected officials in their first 100 days in office.My fellowship experience has been an extremely fulfilling time to reflect on what leadership, a word that oftentimes seems amorphous, means to me. Additionally, I’ve been able to focus on leveraging my skills to create real and sustainable change around issues I’m deeply passionate about. While the past few months have certainly been difficult and challenged me in a way I’ve never been challenged before, I’ve learned so much about my potential and power along the way. My fellowship ends in May and I am hoping to start full-time at an organization that allows me to develop and grow skills around coalition building, policy analysis and strategic partnerships. Most importantly, I plan to continue leading by the quote, “There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.”