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Amelia Hopkins Phillips, who recently earned a degree from the University of California, Berkeley, spoke about the Somo Project, a nonprofit she began in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2014, according to a statement from the high school, which said that she spoke to Bill Meyer’s humanities seminar class and Chris Doyle’s economics classes.
“Amelia provides such a powerful example of someone who has committed her life, work and studies to helping others,” said Meyer, who invited Phillips to share her story with students on Dec. 19. “She has committed herself to tackling some of the most challenging problems in the world. She is able to really connect to our students and is an inspiring model of what engaged citizenship really means.”
Phillips studied the developing world and global poverty while attending college and started her nonprofit with a mission to identify, train, fund and mentor people interested in driving social change by “building enterprises in their own low-income urban communities,” according to the high school’s statement.
Through the Somo Project, Phillips “provides training and tools that people in the slums of Nairobi need to break the cycle of poverty and can help bring long-term stability to urban slum areas,” according to the high school.
While she solidified her interest in the developing world in college, it was Meyer’s class at Bronxville High School where Phillips first began studying foreign slums, according to the statement.
“I hope our high school students got a deeper sense of what real service means,” Meyer said. “I hope they also found inspiration for their future studies and work in the world.”
Click here for more information about Phillips’ work and the Somo Project.
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