Hello YBPWers!

For those who do not yet know me, I’m Emily VanVleck, your newly elected Young BPW Chair for 2022-2024. Although she will always be an honorary YBPW, Ashley Maria is no longer technically YBPW (read her goodbye letter here!), so I have the honor of taking over this role and representing us on our Executive Committee. I’d like to thank Ashley Maria for forging this path for us and advocating for equal representation of Young BPW in the US.

A little about me and my journey with NFBPWC:

I am an Oregon native and have been living in New York for five years. Professionally, I have worked as a flight attendant for eight years. During the Covid Pandemic, I took a break from my career and returned to school to complete my bachelor’s degree. I graduated from the City College of New York in June 2022, majoring in international studies with a double minor in public policy and human rights. I am passionate about advancing human rights and creating a more equitable world for all.

I started with NFBPWC in the NYC chapter as their Advocacy/UN intern summer 2021. I was excited to be working with such a historic organization dedicated to women’s equality, and I was intrigued by the consultative status with the UN. I have had quite the journey since joining NFBPWC last year! I have helped found and lead the Afghan Women Project, the subsequent Women on the Move committee, and have been appointed the YBPW Representative for NYC. Now I take on my most exciting role as part of the National Executive Committee! I am proof that you can do pretty incredible things with your NFBPWC membership.

My mission for this term:

I was excited to join NFBPWC, however, once I was a member, I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on or how I could get more involved. It wasn’t until the start of the Afghan Women Project that I felt I was engaging with the organization. This is why my first goal as YBPW Chair is to help you find ways to engage with the organization and make the most of your membership – whatever that means for you!

• Do you want to create projects and advocacy campaigns that make a difference for young women? I’m here to help!
• Do you want to hang out and chat with fellow young professionals and students? Let’s chat!
• Do you have specific professional skills you’d like to develop? I will work with the L3 committee to set it up!

We all joined NFBPWC for a reason – I want to know your reason.

My next goal as YBPW Chair is to get more YBPW in leadership positions and working on committees. I helped create the Afghan Women Project because I wanted to help people. Not only has the work I have done been incredibly rewarding, but it has also been great for my resume and expanded my professional network. I have no doubt that it will one day help me land my dream job. I want to help each of you get the same value out of this organization as I have.

I want our organization to be a force to be reckoned with.

NFBPWC founders helped pass the Equal Pay Act prohibiting pay discrimination based on sex and ensuring equal pay for equal work. That is the prestige and power I hope to see restored to NFBPWC. I want us to be known as an organization that makes things happen.

• I plan to strengthen our collaborations with like-minded organizations and increase our presence at the UN,
• I hope to accomplish this by creating more projects focused on issues facing business and professional women, like the Afghan Women Project, and 
• I plan to attend more youth conferences where we can network with our fellow youths and learn about organizations working towards similar goals.

Lastly, I want to increase our YBPW and NFBPWC student members. I started this organization as an intern, then became a student member. I am now sitting on the Executive Committee as a full member. Student memberships are beneficial for our entire organization. We must make this organization more attractive to students and work with our chapters across the US to implement more student membership programs.

I know these are ambitious goals, but I am dedicated to seeing them through. I look forward to working hard to create an organization that makes a real difference for women and attracts members who want to join our momentum.

I’d love to hear from you – what you hope to get from your NFBPWC membership, your future career goals, and any projects you’d like to start. Please reach out to me anytime and I look forward to meeting you soon!

As my time as your Young BPW NFBPWC Representative comes to a close, I’d like to brag about all of our successes! I've enjoyed my time as a leader with NFBPWC these past two years and am grateful for the chance to bring together USA’s Young BPW members.

In 2019, I was selected by BPW International to represent the North American regions as a delegate to the United Nations. They were doing a huge push to bring in more Young BPW from around the world, thanks to the leadership of the Young BPW International Representative at the time, Neelima Basnet. She knew that bringing Young BPW to the UN would help us see the potential reach of this organization and encourage us to get more involved. 

It certainly worked for me! 

A week after I returned I called Sandy Thompson, the NFBPWC President, and asked if we had someone as the Young BPW Chair for the USA? We did not! Well…I wanted in! Then, with the new leadership team chosen during General Assembly in 2020, I was honored to be voted in as part of the Executive Committee (EC). I was the first Young BPW representative ever on the EC.

My first goal in this leadership role was to figure out who were the other Young BPW members in the USA! I didn’t know any of them, and we didn’t have a process yet to find them in our system. So, I approached membership chairs, presidents of clubs, even international members to get their list of known Young BPW in the USA. Then I went to work on getting us organized and learning more about each other with each Young BPW Member Spotlight.

My next goal was to improve communication so that Young BPW members knew more about what was going on in the organization.This started with bi-weekly emails to introduce them to the benefits of what NFBPWC had to offer. From there, we had quarterly meetings – sometimes with a skills lesson like negotiating – but most often it was just a time to chat and get to know each other. It was something a Young BPW member could look forward to – meeting other ambitious women like them. The Zoom software made this a whole lot easier to connect and see how truly vast our membership was across America.

While I was building our Young BPW community, I kept in the back of my mind what encouraged me to get more involved – seeing what members were doing on a National and International level, too. So, I worked with the EC to create more affordable student membership options that would also gain them membership to National and International communications. From here, our member numbers grew exponentially. We now have 35 Young BPW members across the United States and counting!

In addition to building our community, I also wanted to build our purpose. Young BPW is more than the technology we grew up with. We have so much to offer. Most of us run our own departments or our own companies. Knowing the organizational culture had to change quickly, Young BPW members were encouraged and supported to take on leadership roles in NFBPWC. From the inspired Afghan Women Project to the impactful Health Committee, our Young BPW members are stepping up and having their voices heard in this organization, an organization that takes pride in advocating for women.

I’ve been a member of BPW since high school – even directing a documentary about our history, called Business and Professional Women: A History, A Movement. Since then, I have directed many more projects, including Pioneers in Skirts, which – yes – did premiere in the pandemic! It’s time for me to hit all gears again on many new projects, so I bid you adieu!

Moving forward, I am confident we can keep this momentum going in the next administration. I hope for more Young BPW, and our members in general, to take on more leadership roles, or participate in one of our many committees.

Being part of committee is the easiest and fastest way to learn the ins and outs of the organization. And this organization really gives you back what you put into it. I’m a perfect example of that. I’ve learned so much and met such amazing people – friends for life!

I’m very grateful for these two years! Goodbye from your 2020-2022 Young BPW NFBPWC Representative and I look forward to the amazing things that will come from the leadership of our new incoming Young BPW Chair 2022-2024!

Ashley Maria

www.ashley-maria.com