School Looks to SPARK Women’s Entrepreneurship

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The Saint Mary’s College Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative will host its annual SPARK training program beginning next month. The 11-week session is designed to help women create business plans, develop marketing strategies and create corporate identities.

The school says more than 100 women have graduated from the SPARK program since it began, and 38 have launched businesses. The initiative is modeled after a San Francisco nonprofit called the Women’s Initiative. Saint Mary’s says SPARK’s mission is “to cultivate an entrepreneurial capacity in women… to advance them beyond socio-economic boundaries and achieve self-sufficiency.”

There is an orientation and screening session scheduled for Monday, August 31 in Spes Unica Hall. Twenty-eight people will be selected for the program, which begins Tuesday, September 22.

Saint Mary’s College launched the Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative in 2010 with support from a $245,000 grant from the Small Business Administration.