The Pangea Network is born.

The Pangea Network, a non-profit headquartered out of The Woodlands, TX, is founded by Nicole Minor. It is dedicated to empowering women and communities through education in Kenya to this day – check the latest at www.thepangeanetwork.org

The Pangea Network decides to make an impact in its home community, in the lives of one of the more vulnerable populations – high school girls.

The Young Women’s Leadership Challenge program (YWLC) is launched. YWLC focuses on creating healthy, happy and informed young women and communities. The program began with a pilot at Ridge Point High School in Missouri City, Texas. The first official YWLC conference takes place the summer of 2012 at Rice University and it is a complete success. Many say it was the best and most influential week of their lives.

YWLC is open to all high school girls across Houston.
The program is held at Rice University

The Pangea Network hosts two YWLC programs.
One at Rice University and one at Lone Star College in The Woodlands.

YWLC is now partnering with many schools across Houston and the YWLC alumni continues to grow.

A new group of high school girls joins YWLC for the 6-day conference at Rice University

YWLC is serving over 165 alumni from 86 schools and 11 districts in the Houston area.

Rice University continues to host the program for Houston area schools. Pangea launches YWLC in Austin and Dallas for the first time.

69% of our 2018 participants receives a needs-based scholarship to cover the program fee to participate in the program.

“One of the biggest takeaways for me was to know that it is okay to say “no.” As a teenager, I constantly try to fit in, but this conference taught me that it’s okay to be myself.”

Based on 2019 post-conference survey data, YWLC attendees found their most valuable takeaway to be harnessing their assertiveness to achieve their goals.

“My biggest take away from today was realizing the balance that leadership requires. When I was younger, I was very assertive and was labeled as bossy. Over time, I have tried to combat this by being too passive. I realized [at YWLC] that I don’t have to apologize for being assertive and direct when I believe in what I’m doing. I can be assertive, caring, and confident and that’s okay.”

In 2020, The Pangea Network team rose to the challenge of redesigning the YWLC curriculum to serve our next generation of youth leaders via an online platform!

With an incredible team of 18 interns and 41 participants, it once again became clear that we truly have a special program on our hands and that our network of youth leaders will always stands together – even during times of protests, pandemics, and global crises.

“My time at YWLC was life changing. Before going, I didn’t think that I had the potential to become a great leader, but now I feel more confident with myself.”

YWLC remained online for another year and created a 2-week virtual community of changemakers.

YWLC became hybrid! We created a space for both remote and in-person participants to experience our curriculum simultaneously.

The conference became in-person only again, and we felt right at home with our group at Rice University.

YWLC has grown! We saw a demand for our curriculum in other communities, so we hosted a conference in Austin AND Houston, both successful in their own ways