September Student Profile: Cassie Myers | Peace and Conflict Studies

In her final year of Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS), with a powerful idea, a competitive start-up, and a fierce amount of determination, Cassie Myers is just beginning.

After volunteering last winter with an organization that ran all-female hackathons in elementary schools, Cassie was inspired by the possibility of using tech and innovation as tools to address social problems. In the following term Cassie became a part of St. Paul’s Greenhouse where she founded her start-up, SheLeads. At SheLeads they’re building a platform for educators, to encourage and assess leadership skill understanding in girls seamlessly. Through the platform, girls ages 6-10 go through story based games that focus on strong female protagonists leading adventures around various leadership skills including: risk-taking, responsibility, and communication.

Where I really think the most value comes out of the program is that it is girls that get to write the content for the game. Using the SheLeads framework, they get to think creatively about what leadership means to them and use their own experience to influence younger girls.

Primarily it is girls ages 10 – 18 that are writing the content for the game, and girls ages 6 – 10 are using the platform through schools and community .

When asked if she had known she wanted to go into PACS at the start of her university career, Cassie gave a definite ‘no’. It was only after taking a PACS course in her first year that she got the initial introduction to PACS, and in second and third year when content became more challenging and dynamic to her did she really find her place in PACS.

I think there is a huge misconception about PACS that there is some sort of limit of what you can do. I worked in tech for all of my Co-op terms, and it was only using what I had learned in PACS that I was able to really identify the problems people were facing. When I came into university I wasn’t sure what I could do with PACS that was tangible, but I found through my Co-ops that you can apply a PACS lens to any situation, come up with solutions and become very entrepreneurial.

With graduation on the horizon, and after being selected as a winner at the Velocity Fund $5k competition to further develop SheLeads, Cassie is excited about where SheLeads could go next.

We are continuing to focus on running pilots and learning how our model can help girls pursue leadership positions at a young age. We are focusing on expanding into more community centers and improving our platform as we receive feedback. SheLeads is my after graduation plan, and I can’t wait to see where we can take it.

Cassie Myers graduated from the PACS program, in June 2019.

Majoring in Peace and Conflict Studies and Business, Cassie applied her her knowledge at the intersection of Peace and Business to launch her business: Lunaria Solutions.

Lunaria Solutions helps companies, people and brands flourish through Diversity and Inclusion solutions that drive real returns. Lunaria pairs expert experience with a powerful platform to help companies manage all their diversity and inclusion needs. Through the platform employers can invest in employees through Education Units, track progress through Lunaria Surveys and build company culture through templated company statements and activities.