CWEL and City of Boston’s Women On Main Initiative Named Finalist in Ad Club’s Prestigious Rosoff Award Competition
The Ad Club has selected among the finalists for the prestigious Rosoff Awards the Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership (CWEL) at Babson College and the City of Boston’s Women on Main initiative for their partnership to better serve and connect women business owners throughout the Boston-area entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The 19th annual awards will be presented during ceremonies Tuesday night, May 12 at The State Room in downtown Boston.
WIN Lab 2014-2015 Cohort
In 2013, CWEL launched the Women Innovating Now (WIN) Lab, a nine-month program for women entrepreneurs that challenges the traditional venture accelerator model by providing an alternative that considers and develops the unique skills and experiences of women. The WIN Lab was originally designed to serve Babson College students and alumni. However, based on the success of the first year, WIN Lab leaders expanded the program to include a more diverse group of motivated women entrepreneurs from the Boston region. The WIN Lab was relocated from Babson’s campus in Wellesley to downtown Boston, and entered into an exciting partnership with the City of Boston and its Women on Main initiative. This past year the WIN Lab welcomed five “Women on Main Fellows,” non-Babson entrepreneurs, to the Lab.
“I am so pleased that this partnership is receiving recognition for the work that Babson and the City of Boston are doing to support and promote women entrepreneurs across our entire city,” said Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh. “This partnership enhances not only women’s access to top-level mentoring and education, but is also critical to the success of Boston’s business community as a whole. Although one-third of Boston businesses are owned by women, we want to grow that number, because when women succeed, Boston succeeds.”
The mission of the partnership between the WIN Lab and the City of Boston’s Women on Main initiative is to inspire and empower women to transform their entrepreneurial potential into entrepreneurial impact by building companies in a wide range of sectors; companies which will ultimately contribute to a more diverse entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Greater Boston area.
One Women on Main Fellow, Laurel Valchuis, Founder and CEO of al FreshCo says, “WIN Lab gave me the space and support to think big about al FreshCo. Being a part of a community where the expectations for impact and success are high, set me on a path that has already led to places I thought it would take years to reach.” Al FreshCo produces vegetable-centric, easy-to-prepare meal kits made with locally sourced food grown by area farmers.
“At the WIN Lab, we’ve experienced firsthand the power of a diverse and passionate group of people working together,” says Susan G. Duffy, CWEL Executive Director. “As such, we’re incredibly honored to be recognized by the Ad Club for a Rosoff Award in the category of Community Diversity.”
Applications to the 2015-2016 WIN Lab cohort are now being accepted. Current Babson College students, Babson alumni, and women entrepreneurs with businesses based in Boston are encouraged to apply. The application deadline is Sunday, May 31. For more information and to access the online application, go to www.babson.edu/winlab.
Rosoff Awards
The Rosoff Awards were conceived to honor visionaries of the Boston business community who recognize that having a diverse workforce and operating in an inclusive environment can better serve the needs of a diverse population. Over the past 19 years, the Rosoff Awards has become one of New England’s premier diversity celebrations, honoring companies with meaningful diversity, mentoring and inclusion programs and individuals with a personal commitment to this important cause.
Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership
The Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership (CWEL) at Babson College educates, inspires, and empowers women entrepreneurial leaders to reach their full potential to create economic and social value for themselves, their organizations, and society.
The Center does this through innovative education programs, events, and by supporting and widely disseminating research about the unique skills and experiences of women entrepreneurial leaders. Additionally, CWEL supports and advances gender equality as a growth strategy for individuals and for organizations of all sizes, everywhere in the world. For information, visit www.babson.edu/cwel
Women Innovating Now (WIN) Lab
A program of Babson College’s Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership, the Women Innovating Now (WIN) Lab changes what’s possible for women entrepreneurs by catalyzing their passion for innovation and creating a supportive community and a rigorous, experiential process that enables them to make an impact by launching or transforming businesses. WIN Lab is a different kind of venture accelerator, broadening the possibilities for women entrepreneurs whose skills, ideas, and commitment to making an impact are too often unmet by the traditional entrepreneurial ecosystem. For more information about WIN Lab, visit www.babson.edu/winlab
Women on Main
Women on Main is a City of Boston initiative that recognizes that women are a vital force in the Boston economy. Women on Main hosts quality programming addressing the specific strengths and challenges of women business owners. Expert educational programming, round table discussions, and networking events provide women entrepreneurs with resources to support their endeavors. Women on Main seeks to help all businesses owned by women to flourish-from startups to home-based businesses to the established brick-and-mortar mainstays of Boston’s neighborhoods.
About Babson College
Babson College is the educator, convener, and thought leader for Entrepreneurship of All Kinds™. The College is a dynamic living and learning laboratory, where students, faculty, and staff work together to address the real-world problems of business and society — while at the same time evolving our methods and advancing our programs. We shape the leaders our world needs most: those with strong functional knowledge and the skills and vision to navigate change, accommodate ambiguity, surmount complexity, and motivate teams in a common purpose to create economic and social value. As we have for nearly a half-century, Babson continues to advance Entrepreneurial Thought and Action® as the most positive force on the planet for generating sustainable economic and social value.