During her fireside chat last night at ONE Tech Hub in Aberdeen, Scotland, IMPERIA founder Jennifer Iannolo announced the creation of the Mary Margaret Forbes Memorial Scholarship. Created to honor her late mother, who was born and raised near Inverness, the scholarship will make IMPERIA’s programming available to women around the world who can benefit from its education and support.
“Much of my work with women has been created to honor and celebrate my mother’s strength, and her love for life,” Jennifer said. “As this would have been her 90th birthday year, I wanted to highlight her contribution to the world by ensuring it continues. It seemed ideal to announce this initiative while I’m here in the land of her birth, and a place has become such an integral part of my own life.”
Much of Jennifer’s work with IMPERIA, including her talks around the globe, are done in honor of her mother and grandmothers — women who created lives of their choosing not because they sought to be pioneers or trailblazers, but simply because that’s what there was to do. Her Scottish grandmother, Susan Forbes, was a welder in WWII who assembled bombs for the RAF — a Scottish version of Rosie the Riveter. Her Italian grandmother, Angelina Iannolo, escaped from an arranged marriage in southern Italy in the late 1930s, getting a divorce in a time when that was societally unacceptable.
”It is from these women that I learned how to forge ahead, because they did so in the face of disasters, war, financial crises, health issues — whatever life and the world presented to them. Now their legacies will live on and inspire other women as they blaze trails of their own. I’m honored to share their stories around the world.”
Further details about the scholarship and its programming will be released later this year. You can stay up to date by subscribing to IMPERIA’s free monthly newsletter.