By Dana McLaughlin
Ingrid Harb walked across the stage amid cheers and applauses at today's Trinity Univeristy Spring 2016 Commencement. She is graduating with a bachelor's degree in international business and marketing. However, Harb’s legacy on the Trinity campus will last long after her graduation.
Harb is the co-founder and CEO of a now international organization called Women Ambassadors Forum (WAF), which hosts an annual conference that brings female leaders from various fields to interact with aspiring young women, mostly college students, from around the world.
The inaugural WAF was held last July, when 30 young women from universities across the U.S. and Mexico gathered for five days at Trinity University.
Here, the delegates learned about components of dynamic leadership in workshops organized by Josh Daneshforooz, chairman and CEO of the Onima Group. After hearing from speakers such as Mexican artist Yvonne Domenge, virologist Susana López Charretón, and business executive Angélica Fuentes Téllez, the delegates participated in interactive networking opportunities to stimulate collaborative learning and improve interpersonal skills.
As the ever-growing WAF executive team prepares for their second annual conference, Harb’s excitement is palpable as she describes what has been planned for the 70 delegates who will arrive at Trinity on June 7th.
This upcoming five-day conference will feature a wide range of speakers from entrepreneurs, scientists to political figures. Some of the notable speakers include culinary instructor Elizabeth Johnson, San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor Buro CEO Brenda Diaz de la Vega and astronomer Dr. Julieta Fierro.
The idea for organizing such as forum came from a little over a year ago, in February 2015, when Harb was a delegate at the US-MEX FoCUS conference at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Mexico.
Inspired by this experience, upon returning to Trinity, Harb’s dream of creating a coalition of female student leaders who could empower one another to achieve success quickly materialized into the formation of the WAF.
One year later, Harb’s network, team, and dreams continue to flourish, attracting more young women to join the cause, such as sophomore Emma MacEachern and freshmen Meghan Mardashti.
“I want to give them the same opportunity I had to grow,” Harb says. “This has been one of the most transformative experiences in my life, and it is something I didn’t even think I was capable of doing at the beginning.”
Harb’s personal growth has also had a tremendous impact on the lives of those who have joined her on the WAF executive team here at Trinity.
“Working with Ingrid was one of the most rewarding aspects of my experience with WAF this past year,” says MacEachern. She went on to describe how Harb has been more than a mentor to her, and challenged her to strive for excellence in her own studies and work each and every day.
Similarly, Mardashti says Harb’s tireless work ethic has taught her that successful project is a result of the work of a dedicated and cohesive team. "Ingrid often reminds us that we have to continue to work for each other and as group in order to overcome any challenges that may arise. This has been immensely beneficial to our work with WAF, and it will continue to guide us in the future.”
Under Harb’s mentorship, MacEachern and Mardashti have become critical members of the WAF executive teams. The trio recently was awarded a $5,000 prize in Trinity’s Stumberg Entrepreneurship Competition. This funding will help them provide scholarships for some of the ambassadors who will travel to Trinity to attend the conference next month.
“One year ago, I had this goal to empower other women, and thus to empower myself.” says Harb. “WAF has the ability to do this and more as it continues to grow.”
While serving as the motivational force behind WAF, Harb also recently created a group on the Trinity campus called She Leaders. Like WAF, this smaller Trinity based group of women works to empower individuals from all disciplines, career paths and backgrounds to come together and make a positive impact on the Trinity community.
After graduation, Harb will continue to work closely with her board of co-founders to ensure that WAF will keep growing and maturing into a well-established program.
“As I move on, I still want to be a part of this movement, but it is also important for the new leaders and members of WAF them to remember that they need to dream, and once that dream has grown and is established, they need to dream again. This is how WAF has and will continue to grow to its full potential,” says Harb.
Mardashti also speaks of WAF’s long-term dream of creating a global social network, similar to LinkedIn, which would empower and connect women of all backgrounds and career paths. This networking tool would magnify WAF’s impact on the global community of aspiring young women.
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