How One Girl Embraced Opportunity & Will Now Impact Her Community

Things are happening fast now, with passport in hand and a visa interview scheduled. She’s just been awarded the dream of a lifetime – to travel to the US and present her case study – the one she’s worked on so hard over the past six months.

Before school, during breaks and before bed each night, she made this project her purpose. She never imagined being selected from the thousands of applicants around the globe, but she wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass.

The barriers she faced in her past left her alone at a young age. Education was always her go-to safe place and ironically, she’s now under guardianship by someone who sees girls’ education as futile. Never losing sight that education is her pathway to an independent future, this competition offered the window of hope and fire she needed to keep going.

It’s a platform for young people around the world to recognize a challenge in their community. Applicants devise a plan that addresses the challenge, based on data and research relevant to their community. Those with the strongest case studies have been selected to present in the US to a group of entrepreneurs, successful professionals and a mentoring group. The latter will be working alongside her for the next year as she implements her winning project into her community in Ethiopia.

The response she’s received from other Studio Samuel students, their families and those in our community, has been inspiring and so moving. It is them who will also feel the impact of her hard work.