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Lauren Hanley is the definition of a changemaker.

The 2024 graduate of the Master's in Business Analytics program has an impressive track record of advocating for women’s rights—a record that garnered her an international scholarship.

Building nonprofit knowledge

Hanley got her undergraduate degree in international affairs from CU. Service was a defining factor of those four years. She interned with the Make-a-Wish Foundation and the Colorado-based nonprofit Locally Haiti, which supports economic development in the Nippes region of Haiti. On campus, Hanley also served as a fundraising coordinator for the Presidents’ Leadership Class.

An internship in her junior year with the United Nations Association of Boulder County (UNA-BC) shifted the focus of Hanley’s advocacy work.

“Women’s advocacy was something I knew I was interested in but hadn’t gotten specifically involved with until the internship,” she said.

During the seven months Hanley spent with UNA-BC, she championed local adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), a collection of policies considered to be an international bill of rights for women.

Hanley’s work involved contacting towns that had already signed local CEDAW resolutions and towns that had yet to pass resolutions of their own. Her hard work paid off: By the conclusion of her time with UNA-BC, Erie and Jamestown had both passed local CEDAW resolutions. Overall, the internship gave her “insight into how nonprofits work.”

“It was tough work, reaching out to cities and towns,” she said. “Doing advocacy work is not easy, but it was definitely rewarding and super worth it to get those resolutions signed.”

”Doing advocacy work is not easy, but it was definitely rewarding.”

Lauren Hanley (MSBA’24)

After completing her internship, Hanley had another life-changing experience: studying abroad in Costa Rica. She had never lived outside of Colorado, so studying in Costa Rica was both rewarding and challenging.

“It was really valuable for me to learn and be immersed in a different culture and see what the day-to-day life is for people living in a different place from what I'm used to,” she said.

The UNA-BC internship, coupled with her time in Costa Rica, inspired Hanley to write her undergraduate honors thesis about female presidential candidates in Latin America.

A new chapter

After obtaining her bachelor’s degree, Hanley pursued her MSBA at Leeds. She was eager to learn more about quantitative analysis to round out her existing knowledge of qualitative analysis. At Leeds, Hanley found not only the knowledge she needed but also a community of professors and students who pushed her to excel.

“It's awesome to be working with peers that are also motivated and smart and allow you to work toward a better version of yourself, academically and also outside of the classroom,” she said.

Leeds also helped Hanley find the Zonta International Jane M. Klausman Women in Business Scholarship, which is awarded to 37 female business students each year. After receiving an email from a Leeds advisor about the scholarship, she decided to take the leap and apply.

“I thought, ‘Well, I'm going to be studying business, and I am a woman, and I've done work for women,’” she recalled. “So I might as well apply. I didn't really think too much of it.”

It came as a surprise then in the summer of 2023 when Hanley not only received a district scholarship from the Zonta Foothills Club, the local chapter of Zonta International, but she also went on to win the Zonta International scholarship. In total, she received $8,000 toward her business education.

“I was super grateful for that, and it was really unexpected,” she said.

Looking ahead

Although Hanley hopes to find a position in market research now that she has graduated, she wants to stay connected to her advocacy roots. She also continues to encourage other women to get involved in advocating for women’s rights.

“Even if I'm not going directly into nonprofit work in my career, I think I'm able to take a lot of the things I learned from that experience and apply it to a career in business,” she said. “I'm really lucky and excited to be able to combine those things in the future and continue advocating for women and working toward progress.”