Below you will find our scholar blog posts – they cover a variety of topics, from arriving in the U.S. to interning with a stellar company to post-graduation dreams.
| We have great news! Four of our seven candidates have been offered full scholarships from top liberal arts colleges and universities!We were able to leverage a small pool of money into almost $1M in scholarship funds. Each scholarship is worth approximately $225,000. Open A Door was able to leverage a small pool of money donated from friends and family into scholarships at top American universities valued at almost $1M.Out of more than 4,100 college and universities in the United States*, the Open A Door Students were accepted into the following schools.— Rina Ntagozera is going to Haverford College in Haverford, |
| We are extremely pleased to announce that Lehigh University awarded Sheilla Rukundo a full scholarship for this fall!Sheilla is one of seven children and grew up in a refugee camp in Uganda. She ultimately returned to Rwanda with her family, as they began rebuilding their lives after the genocide. She was elected Head Girl of the school in Kigali and served in countless leadership capacities in school clubs. Sheilla is passionate about helping vulnerable groups, especially children, and volunteers her time at genocide survivors’ orphanages. Sheilla’s dream is to be an architect, and after graduating from college, she plans to return |
| Influential women leaders in corporations and philanthropy have joined forces to expand skills for sponsorship and mentoring to empower the next generation of women leaders. The Bay Area Women Leaders Network recently hosted a special session to learn from innovative leaders across the globe and to build mentoring and sponsorship skills. 150 women attended the session which featured an impressive panel of women leaders exploring the actions women can take to propel other women into positions of leadership through mentoring and sponsoring. OAD executive director Barb Bylenga as well as OAD mentors attended, spoke and reinforced the importance of this |
| Jocelyn, an incoming first year at Lafayette College, was selected to be a summer student at Babson Entrepreneurial Leadership Academy during her final days in Rwanda. Below she reflects on the experience and what she learned from the innovation-focused program.Babson Entrepreneurial Leadership Academy (BELA) was very efficient. As participants, it increased our motivation and eagerness to learn, and allowed us to comprehend how to take actions in entrepreneurship. We learned to pitch an idea promptly and successfully–a sign of leadership. As the young generation in Rwanda, it is crucial that we grasp the connection between entrepreneurship and leadership—a link BELA |
| This month, a handful of scholars were flown to San Francisco to participate in a world-renowned leadership and public speaking program from Stand and Deliver. Below, the young women give us insight into their feelings during the experience:Sharon“The Stand and Deliver seminar was tremendously enlightening and liberating. The team illustrated how a person’s voices can deliver affirmative perspective to a society. Thus, by using clear, and informative speeches or statements, we have a chance to construct a society that we have been craving for; raising women and other global challenges for a better future. Additionally, seeing a room full of women |