Jennifer Bready, Dean of the School of Arts, Sciences, and Education and Professor of Mathematics at Mount Saint Mary College, mentors high school students during a roundtable session at the Hudson Valley Young Enterprising Women Mentoring Forum. Bready co-chaired the March 23 event, which brought nearly 130 young women from eight regional high schools to the Newburgh campus for leadership and financial literacy training.
Mount Saint Mary College hosted the Hudson Valley Young Enterprising Women Mentoring Forum on Monday, March 23, to equip the next generation of female leaders with essential financial skills and professional guidance.
The forum was a collaboration between the Mount and the Young Enterprising Women Foundation, which provides education and mentoring to young women to inspire them to pursue careers in STEM and business. It brought together almost 130 students representing eight different high schools, ranging from local Newburgh districts to as far as Fallsburg, N.Y.
The event was chaired by Andrea Simon, Corporate Anthropologist and founder/CEO of Simon Associates Management Consultants, and Jennifer Bready, Dean of the School of Arts, Sciences, and Education and Professor of Mathematics at the Mount.
One of the highlights of the forum was the Financial Literacy Workshop led by Rebecca Rayburn-Reeves, Senior Director of the Institute of Consumer Money Management (ICMM) and the Financial Literacy Program Coordinator for Young Enterprising Women. During her interactive session, Rayburn-Reeves discussed a gap in financial confidence, noting that women are more likely than their male counterparts to select “I don't know” on financial literacy tests – even when they likely know the correct answer.
“What we find is that when you remove an incorrect answer, like ‘I don't know,’ both men and women improve,” she explained. “But women improve above and beyond men.”
According to Rayburn-Reeves, women frequently choose “I don't know” because they fear being incorrect more than not knowing an answer, have a lack of confidence in their own intuition, or that they worry a wrong answer might negatively impact their reputation.
The workshop emphasized that financial literacy is not just about math, but about power and personal well-being. Rayburn-Reeves encouraged the students to view their financial decisions as a way to protect their future.
“Where you put money is where you put power, ladies, for better or worse,” she said. “So put it in your future self… We don't know what's going to happen in the future, but we all know something’s going to happen. So having that money allows you to feel like you can handle what is coming.”
The event also featured a panel discussion with successful female professionals, including leaders in healthcare, technology, and academia: 2023 Mount alumna Maxine Lindsay-Shillingford, Chief Nurse Manager of the National Virtual Care Clinic, Department of Veterans Affairs; Tina Tarquinio, Chief Product Officer at IBM Z and LinuxONE, Nicole Sewell, Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President of Patient Care Services at Garnet Health Medical Center; Monali Verma, dounder and CEO of Robotics4U; Amy Lewis Sweetman, artists and founder of AGRISCULPTURE; and Maryam Wootan, Doctor of Acupuncture, registered nurse, and owner of Beacon Hills Acupuncture, PLLC.