Office Depot to Fully Fund 600 Selfmade
Scholarships in 2022
Brit + Co and Office Depot today announced that Office Depot
will continue to sponsor Selfmade, Brit + Co’s 10-week virtual
startup school for women. The course, which has three sessions
scheduled for spring, summer and fall, is hosted by Brit + Co
founder Brit Morin, with dozens of other female founders, experts
and investors enlisted to teach the curriculum with topics on
social media, branding, fundraising and more. Past notable
instructors include Bozoma Saint John (CMO, Netflix), Jenn Hyman
(founder and CEO of Rent The Runway), Sheila Lirio Marcelo (founder
of Care.com), Jaime Schmidt (founder of Schmidt's Naturals), and
Katherine Homuth (founder and CEO of Sheertex).
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Office Depot’s continued sponsorship will enable the course to
be made free for up to 600 women in 2022, focusing on women of
color, women from underserved and underrepresented communities, and
women in need of support to help them start, manage and grow the
businesses of their dreams.
Over 2,400 women have turned to Selfmade to accelerate their
founder experiences. As Selfmade’s founding sponsor, Office Depot
has provided 800 of these talented women with full scholarships
since the course launched in 2020. In addition, Office Depot has
curated special promotions for businesses, plus created a custom
starter guide packed with lessons, templates, and solutions to help
all business owners navigate the start, growth, and “keep business
going” phases of their entrepreneurial journeys with tips on
branding, marketing, fundraising and more.
In an internal survey conducted with the Selfmade community by
the Brit + Co team, 31% of respondents highlighted that the
pandemic made them rethink their goals or careers. "When we
introduced Selfmade in 2020, women were disproportionately impacted
by the effects of the pandemic, resulting in the "She-cession"
crisis. Women pursued entrepreneurship in record numbers because
they didn't have any choice but to pave economic pathways for
themselves to survive," said Morin.
Over 50% of the survey takers felt that they were always meant
to be an entrepreneur, but that they needed help getting there.
Selfmade and Office Depot are deeply committed to serving women
with the knowledge, resources, and tools to fuel the community’s
enterprises.
"Now, as women leaving the workforce continues to climb, they’re
doing so on their terms. We're seeing trends like The Great
Resignation sweep the nation, and women are waking up to the notion
that they don't have to be bound by traditional 9-to-5's. Selfmade
is uniquely designed to help them navigate this transition and fuel
their entrepreneurial journeys in an environment with their needs
and challenges in mind," continued Morin.
Office Depot-sponsored student, Justine Pon, took the course to
bring to life the business model for The Ponnery, a pom pom goods
line. Her mission is to celebrate Asian American food and culture
through creative expression. "Thanks to Office Depot’s Selfmade
scholarship, I was able to invest time in both myself and my
business for ten weeks straight,” Pon said. “You have to put in the
work to find your people and your audience. But it’s so valuable to
have a community of people to support you through the ups and downs
of running a business and Selfmade really expanded my network in
that sense.”
“We’re excited to continue to champion women in business and
help to open new doors and possibilities through our continued
sponsorship of Brit + Co’s Selfmade virtual business course,” said
Wesley Brinkhurst, vice president of marketing for Office Depot.
“With an additional 600 scholarships available for sessions in
2022, we hope to help women kickstart their big ideas and turn
their dreams into reality.”
Features and benefits of the Selfmade virtual business course
include:
- 15+ hours of live instruction in all facets of how to start a
company
- 1:1 mentoring and group chats with like-minded
entrepreneurs
- Customizable templates for P&Ls, pitch decks, marketing
assets, and more
- Access to world-class experts in tech, finance, marketing,
sales, and investing
Selfmade scholarship registration is currently open for 2022.
Scholarship applicants are encouraged to apply for the spring
session, which we will be accepting applicants until Friday, Feb.
25, and the class will kick off on Monday, Mar. 28. For more
information on Selfmade, visit TrySelfmade.com and to nominate
yourself or someone you know for a scholarship, visit
officedepot.com/scholarship.
About Brit + Co
Founded by Brit Morin, Brit + Co is on a mission to give women
the courage and creativity to live life at their fullest potential.
Through our inspirational content, educational online classes and
useful products, she is enabled to shape her future. Over the past
nine years, Brit + Co has become one of the largest digital brands
for women, now reaching an engaged community of over 115 million
monthly users across its website and platforms. It is a top 5
global publisher on Pinterest, has garnered over a billion video
views and has produced more than 60,000 pieces of content. The
brand extends offline as well, with permanent retail experiences,
classes, events, and physical products sold at mass retail stores
nationwide. Visit Brit.co for more information.
About Office Depot
Office Depot, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of The ODP
Corporation (NASDAQ:ODP), a leading provider of business services
and supplies, products and digital workplace technology solutions
to small, medium and enterprise businesses, through an integrated
business-to-business (B2B) distribution platform, which includes
world-class supply chain and distribution operations, dedicated
sales professionals and technicians, online presence, and
approximately 1,100 stores. Through its banner brands Office
Depot®, OfficeMax®, ODP Business Solutions™, Varis™ and
Grand&Toy®, as well as others, the company offers its customers
the tools and resources they need to focus on their passion of
starting, growing and running their business. For more information,
visit news.theodpcorp.com and follow @officedepot on Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram.
ODP, ODP Business Solutions and Office Depot are trademarks of
The Office Club, Inc. OfficeMax is a trademark of OMX, Inc. Varis
is a trademark of Varis, LLC. Grand&Toy is a trademark of Grand
& Toy, LLC in Canada. ©2022 Office Depot, LLC. All rights
reserved. Any other product or company names mentioned herein are
the trademarks of their respective owners.
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Media Relations Brit + Co Press@brit.co
Danny Jovic Office Depot Danny.Jovic@officedepot.com
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