The Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE)
The U.S. State Department established the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) in 2019 to provide participants with the professional skills, networks, and opportunities needed to launch or scale up successful small businesses.
AWE provides funds to approximately 100 missions annually, with an estimated 25,000 entrepreneurs around the world equipped with the American business skills necessary to advance economic prosperity in their communities. The AWE program partners with Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management (ASU) and the Freeport-McMoRan Foundation, the creators of DreamBuilder, a no-cost online learning platform that teaches AWE participants the fundamentals of business from a U.S. perspective.
In 2023, the Department and ASU established a new five-year, public-private partnership to also offer AWE participants advanced courses through the Francis and Dionne Najafi 100 Million Learners Global Initiative.