History

Strong Women, Strong Girls was founded in 2000 by then-freshman Lindsay Hyde as a student group of the Phillips Brooks House Association at Harvard University. The program began working in two elementary school sites and engaged six college-age volunteers serving as mentors. During the first few years of the program, requests from parents, teachers, and principals supported the rapid growth of Strong Women, Strong Girls in the Greater Boston area.

As a result of the program's success, the demand for Strong Women, Strong Girls programming was far greater than could be accommodated by the volunteer efforts of a single college chapter operating as a student group. To meet the growing demand for Strong Women, Strong Girls programming, in September 2004 the organization incorporated as a not-for-profit agency and hired Lindsay Hyde as the organization's executive director.

The Carnegie Mellon University chapter of Strong Women, Strong Girls was founded in the spring of 2006. In its first year of programming the CMU SWSG chapter had over 80 mentees and over 20 mentors at 5 different community sites in Pittsburgh.