WASHINGTON — Nearly 300 women with hopes of having a faith-driven impact on the world around them gathered at the Catholic University of America to discover their gifts to the Church. 

The GIVEN Institute’s Catholic Young Women’s Leadership Forum welcomed 150 attendees, 68 religious sisters, and 70 volunteers from June 8-12. 

“GIVEN’s mission is to inspire and equip the next generation of Catholic female leaders,” said Michelle Hillaert , executive director of the GIVEN Institute. “We're dedicated to activating the gifts of young adult women for the Catholic Church in the world. And what we're doing is inspiring and equipping them to receive the gift they are.”

The GIVEN Institute was established in 2018 and has its origin in the 2016 GIVEN Catholic Young Women's Leadership Forum, organized by the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious. The GIVEN Forum includes faith formation, leadership training, and a mentorship program, according to Hillaert. 

“There's a major identity crisis, women between the ages of 21 to 35. They're graduated from college, they haven't yet really figured out exactly what they want to do in their professional life, and a lot of times their vocational life has not really  been set,” Hillaert said. 

The five-day forum featured talks from Catholic female professionals, religious sisters, and priests. Among them were Sister Miriam James Heidland of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity; Montse Alvarado, president and COO of EWTN; Father John Burns; Sister Mary Grace of the Sisters of Life; and Chinwe Esimai, president of Scepter3 Global Advisors. 

Esimai discussed her experience as a professional and a mother in her talk “Realize the Gifts You’ve Been Given.” She said she brings faith and work life together through prayer to be an instrument of God in the secular world. 

“To deny our genius is to deny the very gifts of God,” Esimai said. “The idea of genius is not just for the individual, but for the people around them.”

The forum includes a mentorship program which pairs young women with experienced women, either lay or religious, to guide them with their “action plan,” from discerning their vocation to starting businesses and ministries, to being better homemakers. 

“Pope John Paul II called on older women to be present and to help younger women,” Hillaert said. “To have a mentor who can walk with you and help give guidance and help navigate those murky waters brings hope. It's like a lighthouse, it brings that light and that guidance for a young woman who wants more but doesn't know how to.”

Christina Valenzuela is a GIVEN mentor who owns and founded Pearl and Thistle, which teaches natural family planning, body literacy and women’s fertility  cycle to men and women of all vocations. 

“One of the reasons I wanted to be a mentor is that, in my own journey, I didn’t have a mentor, and I struggled a lot to bring my vision to life,” Valenzuela said. “GIVEN allows women to give to other women what they didn’t have.” 

One of Valenzuela’s mentees from the 2022 GIVEN Forum, Emily Vork Young, said GIVEN gave her the resources to found the New Eve Foundation, which helps women understand fertility from a scientific, Christ-centered perspective.

“I had this idea for the New Eve Foundation, I just needed help, support, and community,” Vork Young said. “It’s a beautiful way to witness the love of God in relationship with another woman that’s building women leaders instead of tearing each other down”

Attendee Emily Lindbloom said she came to GIVEN to grow as a leader and find a group of women championing each other. 

“It’s difficult to realize the gift you are when society has different messages,” she said. “We’re in an interesting time in the Church when laypeople really do make an impact. And women really bring life to society.”

Another attendee, Argenta Agolli came from Albania to attend the forum. She said she learned the importance of discovering God’s gifts to each person. 

“We might have different specialties and abilities, but this is what makes us unique in the end,” Agolli said. 

The GIVEN Institute honored Harvard Law School Professor Emerita Mary Ann Glendon with its inaugural Fiat Award at the forum for her academic accomplishments and promotion of human rights and religious freedom. The forum also held a “Fireside Chat” between Glendon and Montse Alvarado.

Glendon, reflecting on the award and the forum, told the Register: "It was so heartwarming and such an honor to be part of last night’s event. The sight of so many young women with a heart for mission fills me with hope for the future."

As Hillaert explained: “It’s just a call to women to answer that call from God to help others and to step up and create your own action plan to serve others and the Church. Because when women step up and take action, the world moves.”