Women’s Leadership Academy Completes Third Year

Destini Harris, a junior healthcare management student, makes her final presentation in front of her peers during the Women’s Leadership Academy graduation ceremony in Allgood Hall.

The third cohort for the Women’s Leadership Academy (WLA) at the Hull College of Business concluded with final presentations on Fri., Mar. 25.

The purpose of the ADP-sponsored academy is to empower a community of career-focused undergraduate women to learn, lead, and achieve. Participants met monthly during the fall and spring semesters, covering topics of self-awareness and self-efficacy, goal setting, personal branding, teamwork, and networking.

The Class of 2022 WLA graduates include Hannah Ertz, Kaylin Garnett, Destini Harris, Abby Hennebaul, Rose Holsey, Kadijah Lloyd, Ana Melecio, Allie Ristroph, Chelsie Smith, and Elisha Westmoreland. WLA alumni, Diamond Edwards, Jade Moss, and Jasmyn Smith, served as peer mentors during the program. Additionally, participants were matched with ADP mentors throughout the program to help further develop leadership skills.

The final presentations centered around individual lessons learned for each woman. The 2022 cohort adopted a service project of collecting toys and other necessities for the Child Exploitation Unit of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which was presented to a representative of the organization.

“A few years ago, when we were presented with this idea, we could not pass up the opportunity to participate. We thought it was extremely important for us to help the future generation of workforce in the CSRA. When we take a look at our internal workforce at ADP, we’re 72% female at our location,” said Dave Brendza, Division Vice President and General Manager for OneADP Augusta.

The Academy is grant funded through ADP, which provides funding to conduct the programming, along with a $1,000 scholarship to each of the participants. An additional $1,000 scholarship was given to the peer leaders, who were alumni from the class of 2021.

Written by
Tim Rausch

Tim Rausch is a Communication Strategist in the Dean's Office at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.

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Written by Tim Rausch

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The James M. Hull College of Business is accredited by AACSB International and offers outstanding, highly-engaged business education at the undergraduate and graduate levels.