Colleen Lews von Eckartsberg (USA 84-86) works as a management consultant in San Francisco for where she also serves as Board President for GirlSource, a not-for-profit organisation in San Francisco that provides meaningful employment and leadership opportunities for low-income, high-school-age girls, offering technology training, supplemented by individual guidance to help them finish high school, go on to college, and launch their careers.

“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 organisation called GirlSource in San Francisco. The girls 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.

Alongside her work in management consultancy Colleen has also used her business acumen in other ways: “I spent three months in Vietnam helping to set up a micro enterprise finance programme for the urban poor of Ho Chi Minh City and another three months in Brazil helping establish a programme for marketing products harvested from sustainable forests the Atlantic Rainforest. I have also helped to write a business plan for the Xikrin Indians of Brazil who practice sustainable-harvesting of forest products on their land.”