New Opportunity School for Women - Berea College

In 1987 the New Opportunity School for Women (NOSW) was founded as an outreach program of Berea College by Jane Stephenson, wife of former Berea College President John Stephenson.  Stephenson recognized a chronic problem in the Appalachian region of low-income women needing to be better educated and needing assistance in the search for employment.  The mission statement of the New Opportunity School for Women was “...to improve the educational, financial, and personal circumstances of low-income, middle-aged women in Kentucky and the south central Appalachian region” (http://www.nosw.org).      Outreach programming included workshops for women throughout the region and year-round career and educational guidance for program graduates. NOSW offered workshops throughout central and eastern Kentucky in a wide variety of subject areas, such as job search skills, leadership development, returning to school, building self-esteem, journaling, and computer basics. All workshops are offered at no cost to participants. In November of 1996, the New Opportunity School for Women accepted the invitation to become an affiliate of the Mountain Association of Community Economic Development (MACED), a Berea-based not-for-profit organization.  While no longer an outreach program of Berea College, NOSW continued to hold events and continue programming on the college campus.