Young Women’s Leadership Program

The Community Chest is invested in encouraging young women to be involved as community leaders now and in the future. This award recognizes an outstanding high school Senior who identifies as female, and lives or goes to school in eastern Bergen County. The applicant is compassionate and has demonstrated a passion for leadership in her community through her innovative thinking and courage of her convictions. The young women who apply for this award continue the longstanding history of women in leadership in Bergen County. The Community Chest would like to celebrate these accomplishments and engage in a continuing relationship with all winners and finalists in order to help them continue to develop their leadership skills.

Application available: December 1, 2023

Application deadline: February 15, 2024*

Award information: One first place Senior Award will be awarded $5,000. Two Junior Award winners who will receive $1000 each and an opportunity for an Internship.

* It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure all parts of the application are received by the deadline of February 15, 2024.

Applicants must fulfill all criteria and submit applications with the necessary documentation, as specified in the applications. We look forward to hearing from you.

The YWLP (Young Women’s Leadership Program) Events:

In addition to the awards event, there are a number of programs throughout the year which The Community Chest holds to promote the YWLP. This initiative has grown over the years to include increased and varied programming.

This year we held a seminar for college bound students helping to increase awareness in the college application process (please note that the materials and links are excellent resources from this seminar and are linked below).
We held a fashion show, modeled by our own teens, given by a charitable sponsor which raised funds for the program.
An Awards Ceremony will be held in May, 2024. Please see the YOUNG WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP CEREMONIES AND AWARDEES for a list of the awardees from previous years.

FINANCIAL LITERACY PROGRAM FOR COLLEGE BOUND STUDENT

Participants were given a comprehensive understanding of:

The college application process
The art of the college essay and banking basics
The positives and negatives of debt
How to navigate the differences and consider the pros and cons of applying for need-based aid
An in-depth discussion about the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) and CSS (College Scholarship Service) Profile