In a world where only 35 Fortune 1000 companies are run by women and females are frantically flipping the pages of Sheryl Sandberg’s “Lean In,” Wellesley College has announced a global initiative with a timely, critical mission: to educate the next generation of women leaders around the world.

The local liberal arts institution has unveiled a long-term initiative, called Women World Partners, with Peking University, located in Beijing, China, which will launch Wednesday with a 10-day academic program on female leadership. Twenty Wellesley students will be traveling to Beijing to participate in the conference alongside 20 female students from Peking University. Together, they will discuss a variety of issues, ranging from economic inequality to food scarcity.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, a Wellesley alumna, will help officially launch Women World Partners at Peking University on Saturday, June 8, with a keynote address “on the imperative of educating women for leadership,” according to a press release. Albright will also be teaching a master class as part of the program.

Other speakers include: Pamela Melroy, astronaut for the U.S.; Liu Yang, astronaut for China; Gary Locke, U.S. Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China; and Shirley Young, president of Shirley Young Associates and former corporate vice president of General Motors.

Following the June program, Wellesley and Peking will continue working together, whether through virtual collaborations, joint research or faculty and student exchanges. Next year, Peking students will be traveling to Wellesley to take part in a second joint academic program.

Wellesley writes their aim is to “share the unique interdisciplinary pedagogy developed for Wellesley’s Albright Institute for Global Affairs.” The other overarching goal of Wellesley’s Women World Partners initiative, however, is to establish a series of additional partnerships with other leading educational institutions around the world—all to produce more women leaders.

Reported by: Lauren Landry

Source: BostInno

Edited by: Arthars