The Sunflower Initiative

01/16/2026

Our scholars always have the most adventurous stories to tell, and we are immensely proud of them for their courage and curiosity. Leila Brown, our 2023 scholar, is currently a student studying Political Science (major) and Data Science (minor) at Bryn Mawr College. Spending a semester abroad in Korea was something she wanted to do since starting college, and Leila successfully achieved her goal. We are so proud of you, Leila!

"This past fall, I had an incredible semester abroad at Yonsei University in Seoul. My Korean language skills improved greatly, both from immersion and a very intensive course through Yonsei’s language program. As a result, I was able to converse with some of my relatives that I met for the first time! I also met up with some friends from Bryn Mawr who were visiting Seoul on a class field trip. Overall, the biggest highlights of the semester were eating delicious food and traveling around. I was able to visit Jeju Island in Korea, Tokyo, and Da Nang, Vietnam with friends. It was my first time in each location (in addition to my first time in Asia, in general) and I still cannot fully wrap my head around how lucky I am to have had these experiences! I’m heading back to Bryn Mawr with a much wider perspective, a new network of friends across the globe, and much trepidation about facing Philadelphia’s transit system now that I can compare it to Seoul’s subway (sorry, SEPTA)!"

10/27/2025

💭 A Tribute to Susan Stamberg, Barnard College '59 💭

Susan Stamberg, who became the voice associated with NPR broadcasts for many of us, died on October 16. A “founding mother” at NPR, first woman to anchor an evening news program (All Things Considered), and consummate interviewer, Stamberg gave credit to her women’s college education at Barnard for her
achievements.

“The demand to be reading wonderful writing throughout my time at Barnard... formed my ability to write and my standards for what good writing ought to be. With every passing year I’m more and more grateful to Barnard. It was an absolutely first-rate education.”

“So much was expected of us, and we were told that anything we wanted to do we were capable of doing and that our intelligence was respected,”

Quotes taken from “Being the First – Susan Stamberg ‘59” by Veronica Suchodolski ’19 in a 2020 Barnard College magazine.

PC: Associated Press

10/13/2025

🌟 Thu-Yen’s visit to Durham in May 🌟

Every year, we hold a special meeting with our scholars who never fail to surprise us with their adventures and self-reflections, and we always leave the meeting feeling more hopeful and inspired than ever. It brings us even more joy when our community members get to meet in person. In the past two years, Thu-Yen (a graduate of Bryn Mawr Class of 2019) and Dr. Margaret McKean (TSI board member) have frequented ballet shows in Charlotte and Raleigh together. Thu-Yen often shared with us photos of their hangouts:

“In 2018, Dr. McKean interviewed me for the Harriet Fitzgerald scholarship. When I started college, I got to meet the board in person on my 18th birthday. Since then, I’ve leaned on them through difficult times and celebrated many of my milestones with them as well. I moved to North Carolina for my first job out of college in 2023, which unexpectedly gave me many opportunities to spend time with Dr. McKean and her husband. They would visit me in my city, or I would take the train to see them, but our time together is always dedicated to museums, ballet, yummy food and good conversations. I even got to see Dr. McKean’s familiar Zoom background of a fully stacked floor-to-ceiling bookshelf. It was a touching moment for me because I realized I'd made it so far. Adjusting to a new education system in a foreign country, then adulthood in a new city has not been easy, but the board members and fellow scholars helped me create a sense of belonging. Having moved so often throughout my life, I understand now: “Home” is where my favorite people are. The TSI community has been my anchor, and I’m immensely grateful for our special bond”

09/21/2025

Readers are leaders, and our scholars all share one thing in common: They are ardent readers. In our scholarship interviews, we ask each applicant to share 2 books that have had a profound impact on them - a book that they stumbled upon, and another for school. Our board members and scholars also exchange their reading recommendations often. Here are some of the titles we would like to share:

📚 Octavia Butler, Parable of The Sower
📚 Pat Barker, The Silence Of The Girls
📚 Margaret Atwood,The Handmaid's Tale
📚 Jacinda Ardern, A Different Kind of Power
📚 Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye
📚 Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

05/27/2025

🌟 Scholar Announcement 🌟

Please join us as we welcome our 2025 Harriet Fitzgerald Scholars - Hayden Ayers and Ainara Vecchia!

🌟 Hayden will attend Hollins University in the fall following an exemplary academic and athletic record as an International Baccalaureate student at Brooke Point High School in Stafford, VA. The scholarship committee was impressed by Hayden’s high degree of emotional intelligence and maturity, and her strong drive to help others as evidenced by hours devoted to peer and community centered volunteer projects. She designed more than 100 Journals of Hope that her high school counselors use with students struggling with mental health issues, organized “Volley at the Park” instructing and coaching volleyball for elementary and middle school students at a local park, and created individualized themed memory boxes for Alzheimer’s patients, based on research she has done on popular culture from earlier years.

🌟 Ainara graduated cm laude in 2024 from Albuquerque Academy. During her high school years, she earned the highest awards given at Albuquerque Academy: the Wong award given for achievement, creativity, curiosity and integrity and the Van Ho**er III award recognizing a love of art, literature, and a “vivid perception of humanity.” She was active in theatre, choral performance, printmaking, and teaching art techniques with younger children. Ainara committed to Bryn Mawr College after a visit where she found “women [who] were intellectually curious, vivacious, and confident. I believe in the power of place, and I knew immediately that this was a space that offered a different kind of opportunity, one that would encourage my authentic growth.” She decided to take a gap year to learn more about herself, living independently as a zipline guide in the Smokey Mountains where she encountered people from all different walks of life and where she earned money for the second half of her year living with a family in the Basque region of Spain.

We are so excited for Hayden and Ainara as they start this exciting journey ahead. Good luck and we are always here for you both!

03/02/2025

March is the time to come together to welcome spring, celebrate how far we’ve come and raise awareness for multiple causes. It’s finally Women’s History Month!

We are kicking off this month with the first post about Joyce Mitchell Cook. An alum of Bryn Mawr College, Cook is the first Black woman in history to receive a PhD in Philosophy. Her unique background and journey in academia deserve more attention. We hope you spend some time reading this Forbes article, which analyzes lessons we all can learn from Cook’s life and prompts us to learn more about her work.

🌸https://www.forbes.com/sites/teddymcdarrah/2025/02/27/lessons-from-joyce-mitchell-cook-the-first-black-female-philosophy-phd/

02/12/2025

🧪 Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science 💻


A study conducted in 2018 found that when asked to visualize a scientist, more children than ever are drawing women scientists!

Between 1966 to 1977, more than 5,000 elementary school students' drawings of a scientist "depicted male scientists, often with lab coats, eyeglasses, and facial hair, working indoors with laboratory equipment". Only 0.6% of the children drew a scientist as a woman. By 2016, the percentage rose to 28%!

The Sunflower Initiative is proud to be a part of the change, with our scholars thriving in any profession they choose. Learn more about the study here: https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cdev.13039

PC: https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2018/march/draw-a-scientist/

12/26/2024

💼 On Dec 16, 2024, President Joe Biden signed a proclamation to establish the Frances Perkins National Monument in Maine to honor Frances Perkins - America's first female Cabinet Secretary and FDR's Secretary of Labor. Perkins studied physics and chemistry at Mount Holyoke College and graduated in 1902. This article tells her story, including how she got FDR to sign on her goals for "unemployment insurance, health insurance, old-age insurance, a 40-hour work week, a minimum wage, and abolition of child labor".

👉 Read more about her at https://shorturl.at/LVCs1
To read the article, just click on "No, thanks" when a window pops up.

📸 PC: National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD

12/18/2024

⭐️ Lisa Su - CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) - was named Time's CEO of the Year. She is challenging herself and her team to compete with NVIDIA - the current leading chipmaking company.

💪 Read more about her unique leadership style here at:

The CEO engineered a remarkable turnaround for AMD

11/06/2024

💫 From The Female Quotient:

"In 1872, Susan B. Anthony and 14 bold women demanded the right to vote to be recognized as full citizens of the United States. While Anthony didn’t live to see the 19th Amendment pass in 1920, her courage laid the groundwork, inspiring generations of women to come. After all, your is your voice."

10/30/2024

⭐️ Betty A. Prashker - a trailblazing icon in the publishing world and a remarkable alumni of Vassar College.

💫 Betty Prashker began her publishing career in 1945 as a reader of unsolicited manuscripts, eventually becoming a Vice President and Editor in Chief at Crown Publishing. She was an early promoter of feminist theory, publishing writers such as Kate Millet (Sexual Politics), Susan Faludi (Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women), and Jean Auel (The Clan of the Cave Bear). She advocated for equal pay and more women in publishing, a business dominated by men.

👉 Read more about her at: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/14/books/betty-a-prashker-dead.html

08/14/2024

Our women are up to something!

We are incredibly excited to bring 3 of our amazing scholars together for this one-of-a-kind event. With her curiosity and passion for storytelling, Thu-Yen will accompany Aastha and Emily as they share their unique life and work experience as TSI Scholars and graduates of Wesleyan College and Wellesley College. Each of them is now changing the world in their own ways:

⚖️ Emily is currently pursuing her MBA and Master in City Planning at MIT and works for Bloomberg Associates, a pro bono consulting service for city governments operated by Bloomberg Philanthropies. She is dedicated to grounding her policy interests in service.

🔎 Aastha completed her PhD in Materials Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 2022. She is currently a Software Research Engineer at Intel Corporation, where her passion in bringing innovative approaches to solve engineering problems in nanoscale regime is put in action.

👩‍💻 After graduating from Bryn Mawr College in 2023 with a Bachelor's in Computer Science, Thu-Yen started working as a Business Analyst at Bank of America, where she is honing her technical skills while learning organizational leadership. She is passionate about using technology to bring changes to Education and Women Empowerment.

We are so proud of them and excited to learn about what they are up to! If you would like to join us, please email us to get a link to register! 👉 [email protected]