Spelman Pathways Gives Students a Career Boost

This month Spelman College and Braven Inc., a national nonprofit that helps promising students on a path to economic mobility, kicked-off a special effort to enhance post-graduation career success.

Through the Spelman Pathways: Creating Your Path to Life and Career Excellence initiative, Braven Inc., will offer all Spelman sophomores a two-part career-accelerating experience, including weekly learning labs and leadership coaching.

"Spelman has a long legacy of helping Black women achieve what was historically not always possible because of our country’s systemic inequities," said Venetta Coleman, Ph.D., director of the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and the Spelman Pathways initiative. "This partnership will further that legacy by ensuring Spelman students receive additional support to sharpen and further develop the skills, confidence, experiences, and networks necessary to launch careers that maximize their potential."

For more information email QEP-SpelmanPathways@spelman.edu.

Spelman's popular series "Courageous Conversations: Black in the C-Suite," continues this month with Sherina Maye Edwards, C'2005, president and CEO of INTREN; a publicly traded utility contractor subsidiary. On Thursday, Feb. 3 at 1 p.m. EST, Edwards will join Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D., president of Spelman, to discuss her personal and professional journey.

Edwards is currently one of the youngest Black CEOs of a $500M+ company and just took her company through a half-billion-dollar acquisition.

In addition to her extensive involvement with various civic organizations, Edwards is founder of the Women’s Energy Summit and the Women’s Energy Network of Chicago. She is nationally recognized for championing diversity and inclusion within the utility and energy sector.
To register, or learn more visit Spelman.edu.

Film Major Captures First Place for her Film at Macro Beats

Junior documentary film major Kennedy Dunning, C'2023, tied for first place with Morehouse College student Arion Kidd-Weeks in the MACRO HBCU Summit, a partnership between Macro and Beats.

Her winning feature film, "The Hallway," follows four Black girls coming-of-age in their predominantly white high school. Through sisterhood and unapologetic expression, they learn what it means to be young, Black and free.

"The Macro HBCU Competition will always mean the world to me. To be given the opportunity to share my ideas amongst such trailblazing, creative, kind individuals is something I will never forget," said Dunning. "The space was so welcoming, and the atmosphere was vibrant with possibility. The competition has given me astonishing comfort in my ideas and my career that I didn’t know I needed."

Alumna Raises more than $1M in Seed Funding

Entrepreneur Kimba Williams, C’99, and her business partner board-certified OB/GYN Barbara McLaren, successfully raised $1.25M in seed funding to support Kushae, a suite of all-natural feminine care products.

McLaren and Williams, "the doctor and the diva," respectively, founded Kushae in 2018 to address a problem that many women experience: confusion surrounding how to safely and effectively treat their everyday feminine health concerns.

"When Dr. Barb and I created Kushae we had big aspirations to make an impact on the feminine health category, but we never dreamed that so many visionary venture capitalists and angel investors would join us on our mission," said Williams. "We look forward to launching new products, growing our team, and ultimately helping more women optimize their daily feminine care…one 'kushae' at a time."