We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Pritika Kharkwal a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Pritika thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
Mentoring has been a critical part of my life because I strongly believe it holds the power to bridge prevalent gaps in society through collaboration, guidance and support. In 2023, I was the National Excellence In Mentoring Corporate Youth Leadership award honoree at Washington DC for mentoring young girls across the nation. Not only did I have the honor of receiving my award, I also had the privilege of being a youth representative from Texas to speak with Senator Cruz’s congressional staff regarding passing of the Youth Mentoring Act. This advocacy and active involvement in public policy got me even more inspired to continue advocating for youth mentoring…… I felt that the gap in my society was school based peer mentoring. In other words we needed more safe, inclusive programs at school where youth can have shared learning and collaborative learning experiences. Hence came to life.. Girls In the Corporate World!
According to BusinessNewsDaily, “For every 100 men promoted to manager, only 86 women achieve the same status”. Putting together my passion for youth mentoring and this statistic, I realized that I can work to fill this gender gap in the business world by creating a school based mentoring program where girls of diverse backgrounds can receive equal opportunities to explore their interests in business. If we mentored girls and encouraged them to pursue their interests in business at a young age when they are in their educational phase of life, these girls one by one can work to fill this gap in society.
Girls in the Corporate World (GICW) is a program that is dedicated to closing the gender gap in the business world. Our mission is to inspire more girls to pursue the vast opportunities that the corporate world has to offer. We show our members the diverse career paths they can pursue within business: AI, technology, marketing, management, finance, entrepreneurship, etc. We want to provide our members with interactive, hands-on experiences so they can be future ready.
We host various business bootcamps with knowledgeable guest speakers, friendly competitions and partner with different nonprofits who resonate with our purpose including 3 N 1 Trinity Services a nonprofit in the Dallas area serving the underprivileged communities!!
Right now, we are expanding to new locations and looking forward to creating new chapters in Plano and India!
If you go on our website, you can reach out to us if you are interested in bringing our program to your school/organization!! Below you will also see links to our social media pages.. Don’t forget to follow because we post inspirational messages and updates regarding our program!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
As I spoke about earlier, I am very, very passionate about bridging gaps in the community by providing a platform for equal opportunities to be presented. This is why when I saw that there was a lack of school based mentoring programs present I founded Girls In the Corporate World (GICW) to give members opportunities to get practical, real world experiences in the business world by networking with professionals, having open floor discussions to amplify youth voices, learning about the power of social impact through wireframe app designing competitions and writing about powerful stories through our blogs. We provide FREE programs for our members and we host our events via zoom so transportation costs or geographical restrictions aren’t a barrier. I feel like the biggest problem GICW solves is working to fill the gender gap in the workforce by empowering youth at a young age. If we empower young girls and increase their confidence in career readiness through mentoring, we hope they will grow up to use their career ready skills to reduce the current gender gap! I am the most proud of how much our program has achieved over two years.. We have had an over 4 times increase in members, hosted various events like an AI event, Finance and Entrepreneurship Camp, Art of the Possible event and gotten a nonprofit partner: 3 N 1 Trinity Services! Additionally, for over 2 years we have hosted a very successful competition called the wireframe app designing competition where we inspire girls to research UN goals and design creative, practical solutions to address these UN goals. Most importantly.. We are expanding to additional locations like Plano and India.
I want people to know that we are a purpose driven program which focuses on hands-on, practical and interactive experiences to create lifelong memories that will inspire young girls!
I still remember the heart-touching story of one of our members who called me the night before and said she might not be able to attend our Art of the Possible Event because of some family matters. Fortunately, I saw her on the call the next day and was so glad she was able to attend. Despite her tough circumstances, she came to our event because she found value, inspiration and motivation by being part of a program. She told me “continue doing what you’re doing, it really helps”.
Many members love how our program allows them to step out of their comfort zone and expand their horizons.
This shows the power of mentoring because it not only bridges gaps in the community but it also creates an inclusive, powerful community.
Please check out our website and contact us if you would like to bring our program to your school/organization or be an official supporter of our program!
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
One of the most impactful books in my life has been “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek. In the book the author talks about the importance of having a strong sense of why or purpose behind doing something. I have used this philosophy to guide me in life…… When I founded Girls In the Corporate World I had a strong sense of purpose and WHY of creating this program… I wanted to work to cultivate a community through a school based mentoring program that will teach young girls the skills they need to be career ready so the gender gap in the business world can be reduced.
I had this same strong sense of PURPOSE or WHY as I embarked on a journey to write the first ever teen mental health book by a teen….. Over the years I realized is that there aren’t many teen mental health books out there that provide that youth perspective.. So, I got to work! I conducted interviews with experts/researchers, read a lot of mental health case studies, research students and experiments and most importantly I heard the stories of those around me! Now, I am proud to say I have written the book and am now conducting outreach before the book launch. Numerous nonprofits including Peer Health Exchange are supporting me with my book launch and I have received support from my mentor Dr Ronnie Newman, Director of Behavioral Health Research for the Art of Living Foundation and other inspiring scholars from wonderful institutions and organizations.
I want to give a huge shout out to my family and all my mentors throughout this book writing journey!!
Overall, a strong sense of WHY and purpose in life is critical because it creates that intrinsic motivation to change the world for the better. My motivation was simple.. I saw gaps in the mentoring and mental health fields and I found ways to reduce those gaps through my Girls In the Corporate World program and my teen mental health book soon coming out!! Through this strong sense of purpose I have been able to find true joy in these entrepreneurial ventures.
Check out more information about my book here (the launch will happen in the next month or so, but engage with the forum till then):
https://pritikakharkwal.wixsite.com/pritikakharkwal/book
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
One of the biggest successes we have had as the Girls In the Corporate World program is that we have created a wonderful community of powerful young women who are committed to our mission and vision of reducing the gender gap in the business world…. We have officers who help me run the club and bring our events into reality! Something I have learned as I continue to grow this program is how to better lead and manage the team. All the way from delegation of responsibilities to proper coordination, every little detail matters because a lot of our program deals with logistically making sure events/competitions run smoothly and are well designed/prepared. My biggest advice for maintaining high morale, especially when working with a team is that everyone needs to be a part of a shared vision and feel connected to our program’s mission statement and WHY! A representative from one of GICW’s nonprofit partners shared after one of our events how she appreciated the professional and smooth running of our event. And I only think our events are able to succeed and be impactful because we as a team are committed to reducing the gender gap! I am grateful to have the hard work, support and dedication of my officer team (which continues to grow as we expand to new locations)!!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://123girlsinthecorpo.wixsite.com/gicw
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gicwlths/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550362521247
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/girls-in-the-corporate-world/?viewAsMember=true
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@GirlsInTheCorporateWorld
- Other: My personal website with book information: https://pritikakharkwal.wixsite.com/pritikakharkwal Connect with me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pritika-kharkwal-3a7882269/ Follow my own youth led podcast as well: https://www.youtube.com/@pritikakharkwal280 https://www.instagram.com/talkitoutwithpritikakharkwal/