Lauren Martin
University of North Carolina CharlotteLauren Martin is a junior marketing major at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. As a Levine Scholar and member of the Business Honors Program, she demonstrates a deep commitment to mentoring younger women. Beginning in high school and during her undergraduate experience, Lauren has served as a leader, role model, mentor, and tutor. She has helped design workshops, developed curriculum, and modified services to reach an increasing number of girls through distance programming. Lauren emerged as a leader in her high school, by creating local chapters of national organizations designed to help young women design their futures and pursue their dreams. She currently works with several local nonprofit and student organizations and has created her own organization called Wear Your Crown. She is a creative thinker and organizer who will continue to help shape alternatives for young women to follow their own destinies and reach their full potential. By developing her own business acumen and learning from local leaders, Lauren will continue to offer increased opportunities, broader visions of success, and brighter futures for girls and young women.
Personal Statement
My love for empowering women started at a young age. During high school, I established two organizations that focused on inspiring the next generation of trailblazers. Hickory Ridge High School (HRHS) Girl Up, a chapter of the Girl Up initiative, exposed me to the hardships that girls and women face in developing countries and allowed me the chance to educate local girls on how to advocate both for themselves and others. In addition, Harrisburg Girl Talk presented me with the opportunity to serve as a role model to middle school girls. As a freshman at UNC Charlotte, I had the amazing opportunity to intern with EmpowHERment, Inc. During that time, I assisted with completely redoing their 4-year leadership academy curriculum and utilized my marketing background to advertise for their Annual Summit, a one-day conference serving over 300 girls. Fast forward to today and I am the Founder and Executive Director of Wear Your Crown, Inc (WYC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a safe space for women to be uplifted. It is my hope that through WYC and my coursework in Marketing, I will be able to help women break out of the boxes that society has created for them.