Improving Learning to Improve Women’s Lives

A Note From the President IMPROVING LEARNING TO IMPROVE WOMEN’S LIVES

“If you educate a man, you educate an individual. If you educate a woman, you educate a nation.” Most often attributed to Ghanaian scholar James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey, this nearly 100-year-old quote is both relevant and urgent today. The importance of educating women remains our critical mission, a mission that is not waning. Since the 1980s, women have outpaced men when it comes to earning college degrees in the United States. And, while education is a key indicator of economic and workplace success, women still lag in pay and access to opportunity. Women make up 50.2% of the college-educated workforce, and yet only 6.6% of the Fortune 500 companies are run by women.

Mary Dana Hinton CSB President

ONLY 6.6%

These statistics don’t intimidate us; they fuel us. We’re working every day to improve teaching and learning so that Saint Ben’s women not only acquire a degree, but they leave equipped with a transformative blend of hard skills and soft skills that strengthen professional and personal success, the confidence to leverage those skills, and a robust network to open doors along the way. Improved learning doesn’t just mean that women can overcome barriers. To us, it means that women can dismantle those barriers for themselves and those who come behind them. The result: improved lives, for these alums and for everyone they impact. Teaching and learning in the 21st century is not about the private pursuit of information and knowledge. It’s about, as our mission

OF THE FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES ARE RUN BY WOMEN.

proudly proclaims, wisdom for a lifetime. Our never-ending pursuit of wisdom means that Saint Ben’s women excel in every domain of their lives and work to empower others to excel as well.

Mary Dana Hinton President, College of Saint Benedict