Around 6 months ago, the team at Katalyst Labs started the process of shortlisting applications for the Women Leadership Fellows Program. With rigorous deliberations a cohort of 20 professional women & Fem-preneurs were shortlisted from within Pakistan. There was only one goal in mind which was to ensure that women in the Program were able to hone their skill set and tap into their innate potential.
The Program was designed in a way to cover important areas that our fellows could benefit from. Some of the areas of focus included networking, financial management, self assessment & awareness, adaptive learning. Coupled with this there were a series of sessions under the ambit of ‘Meet the Leaders’. This was an opportunity for the women fellows to interact with real time female and male leaders who were flourishing in their respective fields. This was particularly important as it gave a chance to the fellows to interact, engage and learn from women who were once in the same position as them..
We at Katalyst Labs strongly believe in amending and improving our Programs to meet the needs of our beneficiaries. Therefore, our Program had feedback sessions and surveys to understand if our fellows were satisfied with the Program and if there was anything they would like to see added to or changed in the Program.
Other than the nature of the Program itself and what it entailed, perhaps the most important thing that we saw during the course of the fellowship was the growth our fellows showed. When the Program started some of the fellows hesitated to speak their mind or found it challenging to express their opinions. Towards the end we saw a huge difference in terms of the fellows confidence, willingness to speak, self awareness and the ability to communicate coherently. Moreover, the camaraderie the cohort had found amongst themselves was heartening to say the least.
When we started the WLFP the aim was to help women become leaders in their relevant fields and build a community of strong independent women leaders. This first cohort was a testament to our vision and we hope that with the coming cohorts we are able to grow 10x!
‘Here’s to strong women, may we know them, may we be them and may we raise them’
