Snow flurried outside Mount Saint Mary College on this early Spring Day, but inspiring warmth and vibrant energy filled Hudson Hall during the Hudson Valley Young Enterprising Women Mentoring Forum. Exclusively for female high school Juniors, this all women event was designed to educate, inform and stimulate interest in entrepreneurship within the fields of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art/Architecture and Math).

The morning began with a Financial Literacy Interactive Workshop led by Dr. Rebecca Rayburn-Reeves and was followed by a Panel Discussion on Pathways to Leadership and Success. Amy Lewis Sweetman was delighted to represent the Art/Architecture area of the discussion with her story on being the Inventor / Founder / Creator of AGRISCULPTURE, and truly enjoyed participating in a Panel with Maxine Lindsay-Shillingford, Chief Nurse Manager of the National Virtual Care Clinic for the Department of Veterans Affairs; Nicole Sewell, Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President of Patient Care Services at Garnet Health Medical Center; Tina Tarquinio, Chief Product Officer at IBM Z and LinuxONE; Monali Verma, Founder and CEO of Robotics4U; as well as Maryam Wootan, Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, Registered Nurse and Owner of Beacon Hills Acupuncture.

Following the Panel Discussion, these seven women and ten additional mentors including the two visionaries who spearheaded this event - Dr. Jennifer Bready, Dean of the School of Arts, Sciences and Education at MSMC and Dr. Andi Simon, Corporate Anthropologist, CEO and Award Winning Author - led small group roundtable discussions focused on mentorship and entrepreneurship.

A very special thanks to Dr, Jennifer Bready and Dr. Andi Simon for your incredible leadership - and to the City School Districts of Beacon, Newburgh and Poughkeepsie; the Union Free School District of Chester as well as the Central School Districts of Fallsburgh, Marlboro, Pine Bush and Wallkill - who shared over 120 amazing young women - filling every seat at the Hudson Valley Young Enterprising Women Mentoring Forum 2026.