Colleen Lewis von Eckartsberg '86

I work as a management consultant, usually for large companies, usually in strategy or restructuring. Although I work in the private sector, UWC ideals help drive the decisions I make about my time away from the office. I'm currently Board President for a great organization called GirlSource in San Francisco. We hire low-income, mostly minority, women aged 14-18 to teach them technology skills. They learn valuable job skills and how to be a responsible employee, but just as importantly they find a safe, supportive place to come after school. Our staff are great role models and their peers help them to discover their own potential, learn self-confidence, and discover that they can make their own opportunities in the world. Of our participants, 96% graduate from high school and 80% go on to college, most as the first in their families.

I've used my "business" experience in some other valuable ways in the past. I spent three months in Vietnam helping to set up a microenterprise finance program for the urban poor of Ho Chi Minh City and another three months in Brazil helping establish a program for marketing sustainably harvested forest products from the Atlantic Rainforest. I also helped write a business plan for the Xikrin Indians of Brazil who practice sustainable harvesting of forest products on their land.