Through SPARK, our event series, ignite your thinking about what's possible and what you might do.
Get involved.
Find your people and your flow in one of our four communities of practice: the Athena Fellows Program, Athena Entrepreneurs, the Athena Advocacy Institute, and the Williams Program for Women in Politics.
Want to know what collaborative changemaking looks like? For a decade+, we've worked to redress the gender imbalance in Hollywood in front of and behind the camera, with our fantastic partner, Women and Hollywood, through the Athena Film Festival.
Field Notes
The Athena Fellows program is a semester-long funded opportunity to focus on a challenge of interest to you. Fellows use their method of choice (entrepreneurship, policy, advocacy, art, etc.) to tackle their challenges. Fellows commit their Fridays (the full work day) to their projects and receive a stipend, just as you would for an internship. All Barnard students in good academic standing are eligible to apply after their first semester at Barnard. Want to know more? Sign up for one of our info sessions!
It's the Athena Film Festival's favorite season - submission season! Do you have a short film, feature script, or TV pilot about amazing women leaders? Submissions are now open for the 2022 Athena Film Festival, the 2022 Athena List and the 2021 Athena Virtual Writer's Lab. Not sure which program is right for you? Click above for more information and to submit your work.
Held June 17-19, 2021, in partnership with BEnet, the Barnard Startup Summit was a virtual opportunity for students and recent alums to work with a successful group of Barnard alumnae entrepreneurs to develop their for-profit business ideas. Participants received a rapid introduction to the ins and outs of building a successful business. Click here to read about Christina Graham ’23’s experience.
We are so proud to continue our partnership with Athena Scholar, Claudia Polgar '19, as she represents Barnard in her cohort at the Columbia Startup Lab. As Founder of CheckPoint Health, she is truly doing great things and we are so happy to be a part of that. Check out a day in the life with Claudia at the Lab on Athena's instagram, and be sure to follow CheckPoint Health as well!
“ThirdSpace@ pushed me to step out my comfort zone, and taught me how to stand up not only for myself, but also against systemic injustice. Being a part of this showed how to be an effective social change agent while developing my own self identity and confidence as a leader.” -- Fatima Sonday '22, Sociology
“I have developed numerous coding, communication, and organizational skills, and most importantly, grown my confidence in my abilities since joining ADDA. I believe possessing that confidence is imperative for women, especially women of color, to succeed in the workforce today.” -- Elise St Amant '23, Neuroscience and Behavior
Stay in the know.
We do a lot around here!
If you're a Barnard student, be sure to sign up for our email newsletter to hear about upcoming opportunities.
For our off-campus fans, we have a quarterly newsletter.
To catch a glimpse of life at Athena, check out our Instagram.