There is a lot of pressure on college students to have it all figured out.
Choose a major, find an internship, and build a network. You are expected to know what kind of career you want and how to interview, which can all feel pretty overwhelming when you are still trying to figure out who you are and what kind of life you want to build.
For a lot of young women, it isn't that they aren't ambitious or motivated. They just haven't had enough opportunities to see what is possible yet.
You may know you want a career that matters, but not exactly what that looks like. You may know networking is important, but have no idea how to do it without feeling awkward or fake. You may be interested in finance, media, healthcare, technology, marketing, or something you haven't even discovered yet, but you've never had the chance to sit across from a woman doing that job and ask what the work is actually like.
SHE WORKS was created to help make that path a little easier to navigate. LiveGirl's SHE WORKS is a career readiness, mentorship, and internship program for undergraduate women who are figuring out what comes next.
Gina Goings, SHE WORKS Sr. Program Director, sees that uncertainty all the time. “These young women are ambitious. They want to build meaningful careers, but that doesn't mean they have to know exactly what that career looks like yet. Our job is to give them the exposure, relationships, and experiences that help them start figuring it out.”
Last year, nearly 200 young women applied to the program, and what followed was a year of mentorship, career exploration, training, and internship opportunities that helped turn those questions into real next steps.
92 YOUNG WOMEN WERE MATCHED WITH MENTORS.
Each student was connected with an experienced professional who could review a resume, talk through an interview, give honest feedback, and help her navigate opportunities as they came up.
Our mentors include executives, founders, HR leaders, and professionals across industries. For a student just starting out, having someone in her corner who understands how the working world actually works can make the process feel a lot less intimidating.
10 CAREER DISCOVERY EVENTS.
Career Discovery gives students a closer look at companies, industries, and careers they may be considering through site visits, panel conversations, and small-group Q&As with women doing the work.
They get to ask the questions that don't always get answered in a classroom: What does your day actually look like? How did you get here? What skills really matter? What do you wish you knew when you were in college?
This year, we also hosted our first virtual Career Discovery session and our first Mental Health Career Discovery event, expanding the kinds of careers students could explore.
29 STUDENTS LANDED INTERNSHIPS.
SHE WORKS students secured internships with employers including Macy's, Smartly.io, Silver Hill Hospital, and other organizations investing in early talent.
Those internships gave students the chance to contribute to real projects, learn how workplaces operate, build professional relationships, and start figuring out what kind of work and environment suited them best.
One of those students is Naimah Kaiser, who spent her summer interning with Luxy Ride. During a recent site visit, the SHE WORKS team had the chance to see Naimah at work and connect with the employer partner team.
What happened after one Career Readiness session
This spring, one college student attended a SHE WORKS Career Readiness Training session focused on resume building. The session was led by an HR executive who walked students through how to strengthen their resumes and better communicate their experience.
She took notes, went home and updated her resume, then started sending cold emails to local companies. One of those emails led to a response and, soon after, her first shadow visit with a firm where paid internship opportunities were possible.
Later, a partner at Fairfield County's Community Foundation forwarded us a message from her.
“They had an HR exec come in to teach us how to edit our resumes. She gave some really useful tips. I took notes and edited mine, and felt confident to send out some cold emails, and look!”
She attended one session, applied what she learned, and felt confident enough to do something she may not have done before. Career readiness is not just about learning how to write a better resume or prepare for an interview. It is about giving young women practical tools they can actually use.
You don't have to have it all figured out.
You do not need to know exactly where you want to be five years from now, have the perfect resume, or know the right people. You definitely do not need to walk into the program with your entire career mapped out.
You just need to be open to exploring what is out there, asking questions, and taking advantage of the opportunities that come your way. The goal is to give you enough exposure, experience, and support to start figuring out what feels right for you.
Applications open September 8.
Applications for the 2026–2027 SHE WORKS program open Tuesday, September 8.
If you're an undergraduate woman ready to explore what's possible, build your professional network, strengthen your career skills, and gain real-world experience, we would love to hear from you.
Apply to SHE WORKSSHE DOUBTS. SHE DOES IT ANYWAY. SHE WORKS.
