Sochea Chhay is attending Beloit College. On campus, Sochea works for the Sustainability Channel where she promotes and advocates for sustainable practices. She is also a member of Black Students United which fosters inclusivity on campus, supports students of color, and educates the community in areas of Black issues.  

This past summer, Sochea interned as a Tech Equity Summer Associate at the Greenlining Institute in downtown Oakland. She worked on data collection of 58 counties in California to identify the low-income communities or communities of color which have low broadband access in order to advance digital equity in those communities. At the end of her internship, she developed a policy memo recommending the lower income communities for potential collaboration to foster digital inclusion.

Sochea was born in a small community in Siem Reap, and at age eight, her parents migrated to work as factory workers in the capital city of Phnom Penh and she is the first person in her family to pursue a college degree.

Sochea is particularly passionate about gender equality and women’s empowerment. She spearheaded a project with support from Transparency International Cambodia. She organized two virtual panel discussions that brought together students, youths, and stakeholders from different organizations, such as USAID, Pact Cambodia, and the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, in order to discuss inequality, women’s skill gaps, and the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on women’s economic livelihoods and social wellbeing. Sochea was invited to share her insights with Cambodia Women’s Radio, where she talked about the youth’s role in responding to and preventing the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In the summer after her first year at Beloit, Sochea received funding from SHE-CAN to return home and lead a Make a Change social impact project in rural Cambodia which she called, “Women’s Water and Sustainable Livelihood in Cambodia.” She also worked part-time in an internship with Plan International Cambodia on integrated nutrition, early childhood care development, and the WASH Program. Sochea’s work focused on research and assisting with projects that aimed to improve hygiene, nutrition, and sanitation in rural communities.

In the future, Sochea hopes to initiate more projects in her home country to empower more girls to be powerful leaders.

Highlights From Sochea’s Work Experience:

Sustainability Channel Assistant, Beloit College

Program Office Assistant, Student Engagement and Leadership at Beloit College

Tech Equity Summer Associate, The Greenlining Institute

Healthy Start Intern, Plan International Cambodia

Monitoring and Evaluation Intern, US Embassy of Cambodia 

Dean’s List GPA: 3.937

Languages Spoken: English and Khmer