Her Climb is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to expanding opportunity for young women from underserved communities. We provide a free, multi-year leadership pathway that combines academic preparation, cultural fluency, civic engagement, and industry-specific career exposure.

 

Our mission is to ensure girls arrive at college and beyond confident, connected, and prepared not just to participate, but to lead in their communities, professions, and civic life.

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THE LANDSCAPE

Adolescent girls are navigating a moment of extraordinary pressure and possibility.

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• 57% of high school girls report persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness.

• 30% seriously considered suicide, with rates significantly higher for girls of color.

• Women remain underrepresented in STEM, media leadership, venture-backed business, and executive roles.

• The largest drop-offs for women occur not at entry, but in confidence, persistence, access to networks, and early promotion pathways.
   

Girls are enrolling in college at high rates. Yet access alone does not translate into influence, civic participation, or leadership within the institutions that shape public life. Too few are prepared to navigate elite institutions, build strategic networks, or translate talent into long-term leadership.

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Her Climb was built to address that gap. We are preparing girls to lead the rooms that shape culture and capital.

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WHAT PROBLEM ARE WE LOOKING TO SOLVE?

Too many girls from underserved communities are told college is the finish line. Few are taught how to navigate the systems, networks, and unspoken rules that determine who advances once they arrive. They learn to work hard yet are rarely given access to the rooms and relationships that shape opportunity, public narratives, and decision-making in their communities.

 

The result is predictable: students with talent and ambition enter college without access to professional networks, industry exposure, or the confidence to claim space in competitive environments. They are capable, but not positioned.

 

Beyond academic preparation, many girls also lack opportunities to develop a leadership voice in the civic and cultural conversations that shape their communities. When young women are excluded from the institutions, industries, and media spaces where ideas are debated and decisions are made, their perspectives remain underrepresented in public life.

 

Her Climb exists to change that for girls early enough that it still matters. We pair academic and leadership development with targeted exposure to industries that shape capital, culture, and narrative: business, creative arts, journalism, technology, science, and engineering. We provide mentorship, mental health support, stipends, and a community that stays with them long after one summer.

 

We are not creating a short-term program. We are addressing the access and confidence gaps that widen during high school and follow young women into adulthood. Our goal is simple: ensure that talented girls who have been left out of the power structures learn how to enter them prepared, supported, and ready to lead.

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HOW WILL WE SOLVE THIS PROBLEM?

We are solving this problem by building a long-term leadership pathway that integrates academic preparation, cultural fluency, and direct industry access beginning in high school and continuing through early adulthood.

 

Her Climb starts with a three-week summer program at Columbia University for rising sophomores, where girls choose one of four career tracks: business, creative arts, journalism, or STEM. Through journalism and storytelling experiences, students also learn how media and narrative shape public discourse, and how their voices and lived experiences can contribute to more representative conversations about their communities.

 

They receive hands-on experience, mentorship, financial literacy training, and a stipend to ensure participation is possible for every family. Our programming is rooted in four pillars: leadership, access, wellness, and sisterhood. 

 

Our curriculum intentionally teaches what is often left implicit: how to communicate across power dynamics, how to build professional relationships, how to navigate elite spaces without shrinking, and how to use their voice to contribute to public conversations that shape their communities. This is leadership formation, not enrichment.

 

After summer, support continues through year-round programming: monthly workshops, college access coaching, mental wellness tools, industry exposure, and community-building events. Each student is paired with a mentor and a track-specific network that grows alongside them. We track outcomes over time and adjust support as their needs evolve.

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We also partner directly with companies, universities, and nonprofit organizations to ensure students are not only learning about opportunities but actively stepping into them. Our model is designed to grow with our cohorts. In the long term, this pipeline will expand into a full-scale high school experience built on these same pillars.

 

This is how we ensure girls do not just make it to college. They arrive confident, connected, and prepared to lead.

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HOW DO WE RECRUIT AND RETAIN STUDENTS?

We recruit students through direct partnerships with public high schools, working closely with guidance counselors, College and Career offices, and educators who know which students can benefit most from our program. We host in-school info sessions and provide simple application materials. Our selection process prioritizes potential, intellectual curiosity, and demonstrated resilience. We are building future leaders, not simply rewarding past advantage.

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Retention is built into our model. Every student receives a monthly touchpoint with our team and their mentor. Workshops and events are purposeful, fun, and designed to build belonging. Stipends, meals, transportation fares, and wellness support remove the friction points that often force students to disengage. Families are included through regular communication and optional involvement opportunities, because supportive adults strengthen student commitment.

 

We measure engagement from day one and intervene early if a student shows signs of disconnecting. The result is a multi-year journey that students want to continue, because they feel seen, supported, and part of something meaningful.

 

Our goal is not just to enroll students. It is to walk with them until they step confidently into the futures they choose.

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WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT?

Many youth programs focus on academic achievement, broad empowerment, or short-term exposure. Her Climb is designed around a different premise: access without cultural fluency and sustained mentorship rarely converts into leadership.

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• A girls-only leadership environment intentionally designed for public school students

• A multi-year pathway beginning in high school and extending into early career transition

• Four industry tracks that align students with sectors shaping capital, technology, media, and public narrative

• Integrated stipends and financial literacy to remove participation barriers and build economic agency

• A university-based home that normalizes belonging in elite academic spaces

• A wellness pillar that addresses the documented mental health disparities facing adolescent girls
   

Where many programs emphasize academics or exposure alone, Her Climb integrates identity, industry alignment, and cultural fluency within a sustained cohort model. Students do not just visit inspiring spaces. They learn to move through them as if they belong, because they do.

 

Our differentiation is simple: We prepare girls not only to enter powerful rooms, but to move within them with clarity, confidence, and strategic awareness.