Ridge High School Hosts Fifth Annual Women’s Leadership Summit

On April 20, 2019, Ridge’s Alliance for Young Social Entrepreneurs, a club directed by President Daphne Tang and faculty advisor Fiorella Bologno, hosted the Fifth Annual Women’s Leadership Summit. The guest speaker was Lauren Curiotto, who founded a nonprofit organization as a teenager. Finding the Fabulous promotes women’s empowerment with summer programs, teen conferences, and speaker series.

In a talk entitled “Leading with Courage and Without Ceilings,” Lauren used her personal experiences to share invaluable insights. What should leaders aspire to do?

1. Make courageous decisions

According to Lauren, confidence is a mosaic built up with individual acts of courage. Aspiring leaders should pursue their passions independent of others’ expectations and take risks. When she entered a New York University grant competition for $20,000 in business funding, she rehearsed hours upon hours with her partner for their one-shot presentation. On the important day, however, her partner’s bus broke down in Lincoln Tunnel! Lauren only practiced half of the presentation, so what was she going to do? Resolving to complete the presentation by herself, she eventually won the competition. Continuously challenging one’s comfort zone is the hallmark of a true entrepreneur.

2. Do not be afraid to start small
When Lauren first started Finding the Fabulous at eighteen years old, only ten girls attended her summer camp. Despite its small size, the attempt contributed to Lauren’s success at the grant competition because she was the only competitor who had implemented her idea.
Lauren also provided a case study of an assistant whose only job was to get coffee. Although her peers thought that preparing coffee was beneath them, the assistant completed the task to the best of her ability. Recognizing her positive mindset and wholehearted dedication, her boss gave her more responsibilities. Starting with the smallest of tasks is the first step to achieving one’s goals.

3. Share the experience
People follow leaders not because they are “perfect” but because they believe in their mission and respect their abilities. A true leader shares the drafts, the revisions, and the failures instead of just the perfected final product.

4. Network
Lauren encourages high school and college students to build up their networks early on. If an individual is interested in an industry, he or she should reach out to people, have a 30 minute coffee chat, and connect over LinkedIn. Anybody one meets can be a surprising connection: even a high school classmate can provide job opportunities in the future. To help girls build communities, Lauren hosts a teen conference that connects them to female trailblazers and brings them to visit companies, such as Google and Pandora.

There was amazing feedback from the Women’s Leadership Summit. Grace Zhu states that “As a powerful inspiration for many, Lauren gave us invaluable advice about how to be leaders in today’s world.” Jaclyn Chen says that “she taught me to build courage and break out of my comfort zone,” and Ann Kang comments that “Lauren proved that anyone can be successful as long as they have the courage to take risks. She was very relatable, so I gained a lot from the experience!”

Please visit http://findingthefabulous.org to learn more about Finding the Fabulous.