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Thunderbird joins effort to educate 10,000 WomenThunderbird announced March 5 it will be an initial partner with The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS) of 10,000 Women, a global initiative that will provide 10,000 underserved women, predominantly in developing and emerging markets, a business and management education. The initiative will invest in a largely untapped yet significant resource – the exponential power of women as entrepreneurs and managers. 10,000 Women establishes partnerships between universities in the U.S. and Europe and business schools in emerging and developing countries to improve the quality and capacity of business education in developing regions around the world.  Thunderbird is proud to partner with American University of Afghanistan to educate the women of Afghanistan in their homeland by creating an entrepreneurship program to help them develop the skills and networks necessary to start and grow viable businesses, both inside Afghanistan and internationally.

The programs are modeled on Thunderbird’s successful Artemis project and will be delivered in eight-week intervals or over the course of several weekends for a total of 40 hours of classroom instruction per group. Students will number 15-20 women at a time with the ultimate goal of educating at least 60 women the first year. The courses will be taught in Kabul at the American University of Afghanistan campus, and also will be promoted to the provinces in hopes of getting at least one class with women who commute for weekend programs.

“Investing in the education and economic empowerment of women in developing countries not only improves the lives of the women themselves, but enriches the entire community and contributes to the sustainable prosperity of those countries as a whole,” says Dr. Angel Cabrera, president of Thunderbird. “Our goal is to change lives and create lasting benefit.  In Goldman Sachs and the American University of Afghanistan, we have partners who share this goal and are deeply committed to realizing our vision of a better world through education and opportunity.”

10,000 Women brings together academic partners, development organizations and Goldman Sachs to support pragmatic, flexible and shorter-term academic programs, resulting in business and management certificates that can open doors for thousands of women whose financial and practical circumstances prevent them from receiving a traditional business education. There will also be a select number of MBA and BA degrees funded.

In addition to funding tuition for business and management education, 10,000 Women will work with development organizations to better understand the local challenges girls and young women must overcome so more of them can realize economic opportunity and achieve their full potential. Some of these partnerships will seek to establish mentoring and networking channels for women and encourage career development opportunities.

There will also be a strong focus on capacity building: developing curricula, creating local case study models and “Training the Trainers” to improve the level of faculty training and expertise as well as increasing the overall quality of business education.

Other Initial Partners:

  •  American University in Cairo
  • Brown University
  • Columbia Business School
  • Harvard Business School
  • Indian School of Business
  • Pan-African University, Nigeria
  • School of Finance and Banking, Rwanda
  • Stanford Graduate School of Business
  • United States International University, Kenya
  • University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business
  • Judge Business School, University of Cambridge
  • University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
  • William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan
  • Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania

More detailed information about 10,000 Women can be found at 10000women.org.