In 2008, I took a gap year where I taught English in The Gambia, the smallest country on the continent of Africa. During my time teaching, I was inspired by a group of particularly hard working students to create a scholarship program that would help keep them in school. Many of my students were being pulled out of school to help support their families at home. I pledged to pay for all the expenses related to their education as long as these students were allowed to stay in school until they graduated high school. In 2017, several students accomplished this goal and received their high school diploma. Additionally, three students were accepted to ten American colleges with partial scholarships: Penda, Awa, and Adama.

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While this was exciting news there was much work to be done in order to actually bring the students to America to pursue a college degree: paperwork, negotiating with the schools, and, most critically, fundraising significant amounts of money. I got straight to work juggling these activities with my day job in the media. By early 2018, the Starling Sponsorship Program was making significant progress. We had received the full support of the Gambian Ambassador to the United States, met with the Gambian First Lady who also pledged her support, and negotiated a full scholarship for Penda. But the demands of being the Founding Director of the Starling Sponsorship Program was starting to conflict with my day job, so I made a choice. My career would always be there, but Penda, Awa and Adama only had this one opportunity to make a significantly better life for themselves. In May 2018, I chose to quit my job to advocate for these students full time until they each had an opportunity locked in. 

 

Over the last two years, the four of us have weathered challenging obstacles. Most significant of which was learning Penda's student visa application had been denied twice despite having raised all the necessary funds; securing a full scholarship offer; and receiving documented support from Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, The Gambian First Lady, and Gambian Ambassador. Ultimately, we still managed to be successful. While Awa chose to pursue a different path, Penda has begun an online degree from an American institution called Unity College and Adama is preparing to start a degree at the University of The Gambia in the fall of 2019.