Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business Conference

Luncheon Keynote, Legendary Fashion Designer Diane Von Furstenberg

Conference Session on Journalism and Publishing



Nya and Nikki enjoying a session

Regina Escamilla, Treasurer of the HUWIB Conference

An impressive group of women!!!

Marisela, Calla, Nikki and Nya pose with Alex Witt, MSNBC News Anchor


Yesterday our enthusiastic student leaders attended the Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business Conference along with 1000 college-age women from Ivy League Universities and universities from all over the world. It was an awesome event with a tremendous energy from all of these talented and visionary young women. The theme of the conference was "Find your passion, Build your future!" Conference sessions were offered on a wide variety of topics in business including entrepreneurship, networking, the fashion industry and  journalism.

The keynote speakers were dynamic and inspiring. Diane Von Furstenberg shared the story of her fabulous and decades-long career and how she made her way at a time when so few women were leading major corporations. And both Diane Von Furstenberg and MSNBC Anchor, Alex Witt, encouraged the young women to trust their intuition and to listen to their inner voices. We felt very honored to have Ms. Furstenberg give a special greeting to our table as she left the ballroom and also when Ms. Witt was kind enough to chat with us after her speech and to pose with our students. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for our students and we are profoundly grateful to the undergraduate women at Harvard for inviting a younger generation of women to share in the learning of their conference!

UA Students visit Harvard University

Visiting the Library

Walking around Cambridge

Our scholarly group

Regina Escamilla, UA 2008, Harvard 2012, showing the girls around campus

Nikki and Calla

Enjoying shopping at the Coop :)

Yesterday our UA students spent the day exploring Harvard University and Cambridge, Massachusetts. They had a great time learning about college life here on the East Coast. They visited the library, the Art Museum, Harvard Yard, the Business school, student dorms and, of course, the famous Harvard Coop, Harvard's bookstore. It was a wonderful way to prepare for the Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business Conference which we attended today. More on this awesome event coming soon!
And by the way, yes, we are snowed in at our hotel in Boston due to a very severe and early snowstorm which has caught us all (including the entire East Coast) by surprise. Our early flight tomorrow has been cancelled but we hope to be home tomorrow night! Thanks for all of your well wishes - no worries, we are all safe and still enjoying lots of  "chowda" which is keeping us warm!

UA Student Leaders arrive in Boston for Harvard Business Conference

Marisela makes a great travel statement in purple !

Calla and Nya waiting for a taxi with Ms. Nipp

Marisela and Nikki pose with Mrs. Escamilla, our trip organizer and YLC sponsor

Having fun just before the snowfall

Today four of our dynamic UA student leaders arrived in Boston. On Saturday, they will be attending the 7th Annual Intercollegiate Business Convention organized by Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business. The UA students have all served as leaders and coaches of UA's YLC Great Debate team. In fact, under their leadership Ursuline took first place at the state competition this past July! The students were invited to Harvard by one of our young alums, Regina Escamilla '08, who is an organizer of the conference and a senior at Harvard.

Tonight, the students had a most enjoyable evening getting their first glimpse of Boston and their first taste of Boston seafood, including clam "chowda."  It was also the first day that it has snowed in Boston this Fall so that was a really awesome and surprising beginning to the weekend for our Texas travelers. Tomorrow will bring an opportunity to tour Harvard as well as to meet some of the young women involved in the conference. We'll be sure to keep you posted on this fantastic Ivy League experience!  

Brazil Delegation prepares for departure

Next week, our 2011 Brazil delegation will depart for our sister school, Nossa Senhora da Piedade, in Ilheus, Brazil. Our delegation of 9 students and 2 chaperones could not be more excited as they countdown to their departure date. You can follow their adventure right here on our blog starting November 3rd!

The 2011 Brazil Delegation



Welcome Ambassador Lanier and Dr. Kannenberg !!

UA GAGAs prepare a word of welcome for our special guests

The Global Village has a distinctly African flair

Dr. Kannenberg, UA Junior Carolyn O. and Ambassador Lanier

Dr. Kannenberg describes a day in her unique life...

Ambassador Lanier speaks to students in the UCPA

Staff of Empower African Children with members of our Africa delegation

Dr. Kannenberg is happy to see photos of her beloved pets on the Welcome board

Sr. Margaret Ann welcomes our special guests to UA

Dr. Kannenberg poses with UA students and Ms. Nipp

Last Thursday was a very special day at Ursuline. We welcomed Ambassador Jerry Lanier and his wife, Dr. Catherine Kannenberg to our school. We were privileged to hear each of these fascinating people speak. In the morning, Ambassador Lanier spoke to us about his life and responsibilities as a US Ambassador. Students were extremely curious as they asked questions about everything from Diplomatic Immunity to the challenge of water issues in Africa. It was a wonderful and rich conversation and we felt so special that Ambassador Lanier would take the time to visit our school community.

In the afternoon, Dr. Kannenberg spoke to students in the KIVA. Students were mesmerized as they listened to her describe "A day in the life." It was so interesting to hear about how Dr. Kannenberg balances her responsibilities as the wife of a US Ambassador and her own career and professional identity. Of course, there was deep interest in her pets and in the famous people that she has met in Africa (such as Jane Goodall, the world's foremost expert on Chimpanzees - wow!).

The visit of this dynamic diplomatic couple is one that we will remember and treasure at Ursuline. We are so grateful to both Ambassador Lanier and to Dr. Kannenberg for including us in their busy schedule. It is a comfort and a matter of pride to know that we in the United States have such vibrant and brilliant couple representing our country in Africa.

We look forward to seeing Ambassador Lanier and Dr. Kannenberg again when our delegation visits Uganda in November!

UA community members attend World Affairs Council event with Ambassador Lanier

Ursuline students pose with Ambassador Lanier and his spouse, Dr. Catherine Kannenberg

Sr. Margaret Ann with founders of Empower African Children, Donna Malouf and Alexis Hefley

waiting to hear Ambassador Lanier

UA faculty and staff on the way to the World Affairs event

Frank Roby of Empower African Children with Ambassador Jerry Lanier

Last Tuesday evening, numerous members of our UA community had the privilege of attending a special event through the World Affairs Council of Dallas / Ft. Worth. We went to the Crescent Rosewood Hotel to hear Ambassador Jerry Lanier speak. Ambassador Lanier is the US Ambassador to Uganda. We at UA have many connections to Ambassador Lanier, including our friendship with Empower African Children, so were eager to attend and to learn more about the opportunities for US businesses in Africa. It was a great evening and it gave our students a wonderful insight into our local African communities. We all had an enjoyable evening and we learned a great deal about the business opportunities that are possible and emerging in the developing world.

Preparing for Africa with Empower African Children

Jazz and Candace are ready to model these fashionable safari shoes

Ally likes the safari boot.

Our happy group

Alexis Hefley of EAC explains the marketing plan of UWEZO shoes

Reviewing details of our travel itinerary

Learning more about the children in Uganda

This past Thursday evening, our Africa delegation visited the Dallas office of Empower African Children. Our delegation will travel to Uganda and Kenya with Empower African Children in November so there is much to learn and to prepare. As many of you know, EAC is an organization that makes a deep investment in the education of orphans and vulnerable children in Uganda. Their good work and deep commitment transforms lives so we are honored to partner with this awesome organization.

While we were at the EAC office, we learned a lot about their organization and the situation of children in Uganda. We were particularly thrilled to learn about UWEZO ("you way zoe") shoes, a new project of EAC where a percentage from the sale of these great Kenyan-made shoes will benefit EAC. The shoes will be available for sale at Macy's starting in November (the men's line). The women's shoes will be available for order through UWEZO's Facebook page (be sure to "like" them!). Our fashion-forward delegation was thrilled to pre-order their safari shoes so that they can support EAC even before we leave for Uganda.

This will be our first Ursuline student delegation to Africa so we are filled with excitement and anticipation of the adventure that lies ahead. We'll be reporting on our adventure here on the blog so please stay tuned - we depart November 8th!

Farewell to our sisters from Huaxia Girls' School

Well, it's never easy to say farewell to a dear friend... and the departure of our guests from China was no exception. Many tears were shed as the delegation departed on Friday afternoon. During our last hours together, we had a farewell performance in the KIVA where the girls from China amazed us with their many talents. The performance ended in an exchange of gifts between the two schools (we received a gorgeous floral painting, made by one of the young students at Huaxia as well as brochures about Huaxia and Huaxia received a digital frame and photos from Ursuline as well as a framed photo marking our participation in the Confucius Classroom).

To ease the pain of goodbye, we shared a delicious butter cream cake, complete with two hugging girl bears. As you can see in the photos, goodbye was the hardest on our wonderful host students who became so close to their guest sisters in this very short time. Of course, we adults were pretty wrecked by the goodbye as well.

Happily, we are looking ahead to 2012 when we hope to be reunited with our Huaxia sisters! We are already planning for our Spring delegation to China and for the visit of a group from Huaxia in the Fall. We can't wait to be together again!

Learning from each other ...

 Oh, how much we enjoyed and learned this past week! Despite the shortness of our time with our friends from China, we were able to learn and experience much! On Monday, the teachers made a wonderful presentation to our faculty about life and curriculum at Huaxia Academy - we were delighted to learn that they have a new class in "International Understanding" and also that they are becoming a laptop school - just like UA! 

The Huaxia students gave a thrilling presentation in the UCPA as part of Chinese culture week where they talked about their daily lives and also about their favorite things (such as moon cakes - yumm!).  One of the visiting teachers taught a chemistry lesson about how to make tofu and the Chinese culture teacher taught a lesson about China's many festivals.

We also did our best to share lessons with our guests and a favorite lesson was in Mr. Thompson's Printmaking class where the students made prints of an Ursuline sunburst. They later received the same print on T-shirts which they immediately put on for the excursion to the State Fair.

So little time - so much to learn!