Girls at Gap

This summer Gap Women in Leadership (GapWIL) partnered with Girls Inc. to launch a summer menteeship program at Gap Inc. Through the course of the 3 week program, 3 high school juniors, “wonder women in training”, met with career coaches, visited stores, developed technical skills through crash courses in retail, inventory management and excel, and sat down with Gap Inc. leadership to learn about the business and Gap Inc. values- and that is just the beginning!

At the end of the menteeship, the girls felt like they had so much to take away from the experience, “We learned a lot!” an intern exclaims, “we learned to always being empathic regardless of title or status, to never underestimate the importance of networking, set small ‘sticky note’ goals in order to work towards a greater goal, and the importance of having an open mindset”. This is just a snapshot of the key takeaways from the program. The young women were also inspired by Gap Inc. values, and the large amount of women in leadership at Gap Inc. with equal pay and equal rights.

One girl mentioned a powerful moment when Rathi Murthy, SVP/CTO of Gap Inc. & GapWIL steering committee member, shared her personal story on how she established herself in the male-dominated tech industry after moving to a new country, and starting from scratch to build her network with only her exceptional engineering capabilities and hunger to make an impact- the girl summarizes, “No matter where you are, if you are inspired to do it, just go for it.”

GapWIL announced its partnership with Girls Inc. in 2017. GapWIL plans to host the internship next year, with the goal of expanding the program to more young women.