The bus tours tackling the workplace gender gap one city at a time

“Ariana Schoenholz did what a lot of college grads only wish they could do: land a dream job less than three months after getting her diploma. The offer came after she did a bus tour with an organization called GenHERation, which is designed to expose young women to female leadership and career opportunities they might not otherwise get to experience.

She was faced with a dilemma that will sound familiar to new graduates. “My career ambitions have always been to find a job where I can be financially successful while also enjoying the work that I am doing,” says Schoenholz, who graduated from Emory University in May 2018.

“Some people have tried to tell me that having both is impossible,” she adds, “but I have always been determined to find that job.” As a self-professed extrovert who loves spontaneous interactions, Schoenholz thought that a career in sales could provide the best fit.

“I honestly didn’t know what to expect,” she confesses, but looking on LinkedIn, she soon realized there were plenty of potential positions that could suit. Yet sometimes, having choices across industries like you would in sales makes it tough to narrow down to one. That’s where GenHERation’s Discovery Days tour came in.

The bus currently goes to 10 cities (with plans to add more soon) during the summer. It takes high school and college women on immersive day trips, where they visit a variety of innovative companies across a diverse range of industries. Each student signs on for one city. Once on the tour, they get to meet female executives, visit the offices, participate in skill-building workshops like doing mock interviews, and hopefully, like Schoenholz, use that time to network and get a job or internship.”