“We will have world peace when women are the leaders.” -Daisaku Ikeda
OUR MISSION
Prancing Ponies Foundation’s mission is ‘Creating Women Leaders One Girl at a Time’.
OUR COMMITMENT
We are committed to offer low-income women the ability to attend seminars and conferences that will take their careers to the next level. We are committed to creating a world inclusive of women in all levels of leadership.
OUR GOAL
Prancing Ponies Foundation will help Women help themselves. Creating a community of future women leaders that receive lifelong support from Prancing Ponies Foundation and who give back to their community by mentoring and supporting their younger Prancing Sisters.
WHO BENEFITS
In 2005, there were a total of 21,275 females awarded bachelor degrees in engineering but only 937 were African American, 2,225 were Hispanic, and 3,106 were Asian. The Prancing Ponies Leadership-Abroad and Online Leadership Academy seeks to bring value to high school girls and aspiring engineers by supplementing their education with knowledge and skills to enable them to pursue leadership roles within their future companies and industries. (Yoder, Brian; Engineering by the Numbers, www.asee.org)
WHY IS WOMEN LEADERSHIP SO IMPORTANT NOW?
“We will not accept a world where decisions about our future are made in rooms girls cannot enter.” -Malala
In today’s corporate, educational, and political institutions, it’s clear we need more women leaders now more than ever to provide a more balanced perspective along with compassion and critical thinking to our most influential institutions. Recently, we’ve seen an extreme example of the need for more women leaders when national decisions about US healthcare was made in a room that contained no women. Women are also still dealing with the pay gap in most Western countries and access to basic education in other parts of the world.
Prancing Ponies Foundation is committed to giving women the opportunities to reach their potential and beyond. Prancing Ponies provides funds for conferences and seminars that they want to attend in their fields. We also will give them a stipend for work time lost in order for them to attend the events. This should help them move further up in their careers and lives. Once in Leadership positions, they can begin to sustainably address current social inequities Women experience every day. We are prepared to do whatever it takes to accomplish our mission of Creating Women Leaders One Girl at a Time.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” -Albert Einstein
Herstory
The idea for the Foundation stems from an experience in San Francisco where I was at a stop sign next to a bus stop watching 3 teenage girls and reminiscing about my own experience as a teenager. The girls suddenly grew silent and I noticed they were looking at me. One of the girls said ‘Miss, I like your car’ and without knowing where this came from I said ‘I expect you to get one too’. Our eyes locked and I’ll never forget her little face as she slowly nodded in agreement. I knew in that moment there was a real connection made with her and that I could use my Ferrari to inspire young girls. It’s a dream to be able to combine my passion for helping teenage girls become leaders and driving my Ferrari – actually I’ve come to realize it’s my life’s purpose. My first experience living abroad changed my life forever when I moved to Monaco to obtain my MBA in Entrepreneurship in 2007. My resulting success through hard work combined with my international business experience, culminated in my becoming the first employee of a startup biotech. I then purchased my first Ferrari and the concept for the Prancing Ponies Foundation and its fundraisers the Prancing Ponies Rally and Prancing Ponies Car Show was born.
LEARN MORE
Please click here to donate and support ‘Creating Women Leaders One Girl at a Time’.
WHY WHAT WE DO IS SO VALUABLE….
Our previous generations of women have failed us.
The 60’s and 70’s civil & feminist movements opened the way to social and professional evolution for women. Yet, today, it takes twice as much time for a woman to reach an executive or leadership level as for a man, and women are clearly under-represented at the political level and on company boards.
Why are we facing the same issues again and again?
We started taking control of many domains of our lives decades ago so blaming men is no longer an option. Let’s start asking the right questions to find solutions facilitating the empowerment of women in modern society. One of them is a harsh one but we feel comfortable asking it, without blame or judgment:
Have you mentored one girl in your lifetime?
Corporate, societal and political conditioning have in some insidious way concentrated our attention on fighting instead of helping, on keeping quiet instead of speaking up, on fearing instead of welcoming.
As we are so busy building our careers, we tend to forget:
- that women would not have had to fight so hard if the previous generation mentored us and taught us everything they know
- that we would feel more supported managing young girls we have mentored and helped reach the top instead of fearing a younger, smarter, prettier woman would take our place at work.
- that we collectively have the duty to ensure the next generation has all of the skills and knowledge we now possess so that younger women are in positions to make decisions which will affect our lives as we age.
This is why Prancing Ponies exists. In order for us to move forward we can no longer advance our careers alone. We have to bring at least 1 girl on the journey with us. That’s why our mission is “Creating Women Leaders One Girl at a Time’. We have to take responsibility to teach our girls what we know so that they don’t waste ten years learning how to run meetings, negotiate their salaries and manage their careers.
Prancing Ponies is ready for this challenge. Our mentoring and leadership programs are already helping smart young women shape their professional lives efficiently, but we want to do more and for more girls.
We need your help to continue the work. We need you to imagine what would happen if today, each experienced women would mentor one girl so that she reaches a leadership position in the future. We need you to envision what our country and the world would be with countless women in influential positions, not twenty years from now, tomorrow.
Are you ready to support a real solution to create a world where you, your daughter, your niece or younger friends will have a place and a voice? Are you ready to stop perpetuating gender inequality?
Then together – help us create a sustainable solution.
Together, we can ‘Create a Pipeline of Women Leaders One Girl at a Time’!
Heartfelt Letters from Mothers of Daugthers
August 9, 2016
Hello,
I just wanted to thank your team for creating wonderful experiences for young girls to develop their self esteem. I was at lunch on Sunday in Carmel, California in a small middle eastern cafe when all the ladies and the team arrived at the restaurant. To be honest, I did not know who everyone was so I did what most people in this day and age do..googled it!! As a single parent of two beautiful young girls, I commend you for starting a foundation to improve young girls self esteem and to help them to believe that they can achieve anything when they set their minds to it!! Everyone has their own inner critic that tells them they are not good enough , not smart enough or not skinny enough etc …..So thanks for empowering young women and giving them an opportunity to ignore their inner critic and be the shining, strong and independent people that they are capable of becoming!!! Just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate what you are doing for the youth of today!!
Best Regards,
November 14, 2016
Hello Chanterria,
I just wanted to thank you for your kind gesture. It was wonderful getting to meet with you last Saturday. My daughters and I had a great time being with you and enjoying the delicious dinner. Thank you for making out time from your busy schedule to explain things to us.
Ugochi is very excited for the wonderful opportunity you gave her. She has been working really hard to excel in her studies and extra curricular activities.
Thank you so much for making her dream come true.