DALLAS, TX (December 22, 2022) – Mary Kay recently announced its sustainability strategy – Enriching Lives Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow – which encompasses five pillars, 15 commitments, and over a decade of action. This strategy was developed with Mary Kay’s key stakeholders and is aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, making Mary Kay an essential part of a global coalition to ensure a better future.
As part of this overarching strategy and to continue its decades-long advocacy for women’s empowerment, education and entrepreneurship, Mary Kay is committed to providing 250,000 young women education opportunities by 2030. To further its mission of enriching women’s lives, partnerships and scholarships with local and global organizations in 2022 ensured young women around the world are provided with exceptional education opportunities to pursue their dreams.
2022 Mary Kay Inc. Partnerships/Programs included:
- Young Women in STEAM Grants – Six recipients received grants created to elevate young women in STEAM fields and encourage them to continue their passions and career pursuits. The 2022 recipients were from N. Macedonia, Germany, the Philippines, China, and Australia pursuing careers in everything from app development and architecture to physics and geothermal inventions.
- Young Women in STEAM Continuing Education Grant – As an extension of Mary Kay’s Young Women in STEAM grants and social campaign, Ivanna Hernandez, a 2021 grant recipient, was awarded a second grant to help further pursue her dream of becoming the first Latin American woman astronaut to go to Mars. She was featured in a documentary created to inspire young women to shoot for the stars – or Mars in this case!
- Society of Cosmetic Chemists Madam C. J. Walker Scholarship – Established to honor Walker, the first female, self-made millionaire who made her fortune by developing a line of cosmetics and hair care products for Black women. At the SCC 75th Annual meeting, Ms. A’Lelia Bundles, the great-great-granddaughter of Madam CJ Walker, and Michelle Hines, Ph.D., Director of Product Formulation at Mary Kay, presented the Madam C. J. Walker Scholarships for under-represented minority students pursuing higher education in STEM disciplines related to cosmetics and personal care industry. The award is supported by the Society of Cosmetic Chemists and partnered and funded by Mary Kay. The winning recipients included: Joy Rutherford, fifth-year PhD student and NIH Research Fellow; and Imani Elaine Porter, Hampton University, second-year undergraduate in biochemistry.
- Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship – Partnering to provide 47,000 youth globally with entrepreneurship curriculum and innovative thinking opportunities. Through support of 1) the Aspiring Entrepreneurs Program (U.S.) core program; 2) World Series of Innovation; and 3) World Series of Innovation Challenge Innovation Days, Mary Kay is helping to empower youth to reach their entrepreneurial dreams. In the 2021-2022 school year, Mary Kay sponsored the NFTE World Series of Innovation (WSI) where 21 teams of emerging social entrepreneurs won a total of $16,800 for their proposed solutions to seven challenges, each of which focused on advancing a Sustainable Development Goal. Sponsors of the seven innovation challenges included: Bank of the West, Citi Foundation, Mary Kay, Saint-Gobain North America, Ernst & Young, LLP (EY), Maxar Technologies, and PIMCO. The 2022 World Series of Innovation Challenge launched in September 2022 and Mary Kay is participating for a third year tackling SDG 14: Life Below Water.
- City of Lewisville, IncubatorEDU – In partnership with the Lewisville Independent School District (LISD), IncubatorEDU offers a robust entrepreneurship curriculum to Lewisville High School students. Community mentors and an end-of-year pitch event provide the students with real-life entrepreneurial experience and education opportunities.
- Academy of Marketing Science – For more than 25 years, Mary Kay has supported the Mary Kay Dissertation and Dissertation Proposal Awards at the annual Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) conference where doctoral student participants showcase their successfully defended dissertations and receive a monetary award and critical peer feedback to improve their chances of publishing their work in academic journals in the future.
- Ursuline Academy of Dallas – Mary Kay Ash Endowed Scholarship – Scholarship awarded annually to support girls with an education that equips them with the skills and confidence needed to do great things.
- Army Scholarship Foundation – Mary Kay Corporation Honorary Scholarship – Scholarship awarded annually to deserving sons and daughters of US Army soldiers and Army veterans, and to spouses of enlisted active-duty soldiers.
- Hispanic Scholarship Fund – Scholarship awarded annually to support and empower students and parents with the knowledge and resources to successfully complete a higher education, while providing support services and scholarships to as many exceptional students, HSF scholars and Alumni as possible.