Nashville Young Enterprising Women Mentoring Forum



The Nashville Young Enterprising Women Mentoring Forum is an annual mentoring program created by Monica Smiley, President & Founder of the Enterprising Women Foundation. It is designed to help high school girls recognize their leadership potential and inspire them to dream big and focus on the next steps to becoming entrepreneurs or leaders in STEAM-based fields and other industries. The program reaches hundreds of girls across 15 cities in the U.S., giving them an opportunity to meet and learn from outstanding women entrepreneurs and corporate leaders representing a wide range of businesses in their community.

The format of the program is highly interactive and includes a panel discussion featuring women in business with diverse backgrounds sharing their stories and answering questions from the high school students. Following the panel discussion are mentoring roundtables in small groups with the girls based on interest area. The students receive information about the program ahead of schedule to prepare them to actively participate in the mentoring roundtable and Q&A session. The event concludes with every girl receiving a certificate of recognition. Scholarships are also awarded to select students to attend the Enterprising Women Conference for two days of leadership training, workshops and one-on-one mentoring with some of the top women entrepreneurs in the world. Aspiring students are nominated for the scholarship by the school’s program liaison and selected by Sharon W. Reynolds, DevMar Products’ President & CEO and advisory board member for Enterprising Women, and Nashville Chair of the Young Enterprising Women Mentoring Forum.

The inaugural event was held at Pearl-Cohn Entertainment Magnet High School in 2018, and doubled in size in 2019, when we partnered with two schools, Maplewood High School and Whites Creek High School. “We expect this event to continue to grow and make a positive impact on the lives of Metro Nashville Public School students,” Sharon W. Reynolds, President & CEO.

If you or your organization would like to become a corporate sponsor of this life-changing event, or would like to support the scholarship effort, please click to download the Sponsor Packet. If you are interested in participating as a mentor, please email us.