Obama Foundation Annual Report 2018

It’s a simple truth, but a powerful one. And it’s a sentiment that has guided me my entire life.

It’s what led me to Chicago as a young man, eager to make a difference but unsure how to do it, searching for mentors and a community that I might be able to help out. It’s what sustained my campaigns and my time in the White House—the support of millions of people who shared the belief that lasting change can only come from the bottom up. And it’s the idea that Michelle and I have devoted our lives to through our Foundation, an organization committed to inspiring, empowering, and connecting people with the voice and the vision for a better tomorrow.

Because the world can use more leaders. I saw that clearly during my time in the White House, and I believe that even more today. When global progress is halted, it’s not because we lack the solutions to our problems. People don’t go hungry because we don’t know how to grow food. Children don’t die because we lack cures to common diseases. Schools don’t fail because we don’t know how to provide a quality education.

We face these and other challenges, as unique as they are, for a similar reason: because we need the kind of inclusive, ethical leadership that can channel a people’s will into progress that benefits everyone. We need fresh eyes and diverse perspectives that can help us question and change our current ways of thinking.

That’s why the Obama Foundation is supporting emerging leaders throughout the world—because we believe that the community leaders of today will become the global leaders of tomorrow.

And I don’t just mean politicians and presidents.

Leadership is necessary at all levels of a society. We need more grassroots leaders who are willing to go into their communities to ensure everyone’s voice is heard. We need more entrepreneurs and private sector executives who understand that enriching their communities and workforce can be just as valuable as enriching their shareholders. We need more advocates who are willing to challenge systems of oppression and ensure that potential is met with opportunity, regardless of race or gender, culture or creed, orientation or belief.

We need more jurists and thinkers and scientists and engineers and artists and everyday people, everywhere, to step up, realize our fates are intertwined, and help lead us into a brighter future.

Those are the leaders of tomorrow that we seek to prepare today.

Throughout these pages, you’ll see how the Obama Foundation is working to identify and support those leaders, whether it’s amplifying the impact of established changemakers like our Fellows and Scholars, offering substantive training programs to emerging voices in communities at home or regions abroad, or breaking down barriers for boys and young men of color in the U.S. and girls around the world so that they can thrive and lead as well.

To me, the stories that really stand out are the stories of connection—young men and young women who’ve met each other through the Foundation’s work and have been able to improve people’s lives in dramatic new ways as a result.

These are connections that would not otherwise exist— Scholars from Asia, Leaders from Africa, Fellows from Europe, college students from Chicago—all forming bonds that will support and enrich them for years to come. Some met during the course of our programming. Some met during our 2018 Summit.

Some will soon meet through a digital network we’re building. And many, many more will meet at the Obama Presidential Center, a campus that will attract people from around the world, while honoring Chicago’s history as a crucible for change.

Today they all know that they’re not alone as they pursue progress.

And in the days and years ahead, they will change the world—together.

Barack Obama

Dear Friends,

Here at the Obama Foundation, we’re focused on building the world we all hope to see. A world that is more inclusive and participatory. A world that is more generous. A world that is more just. A world where people discover and harness their own power and voice. A world where people see their lives as being deeply intertwined with the lives of others and see themselves as capable of transforming their communities for the better.

That vision serves as our North Star, guiding everything we do, from community leadership trainings here in Chicago to global leadership roundtables and programs in countries around the world.

We believe that to solve the most pressing problems we face—to build that world we want to see—we need to invest in people. We need to develop leaders who come together in a cooperative, inclusive, thoughtful, and constructive way, focused on bridging our divides and building stronger communities for the common good.

And 2018 was a milestone in our effort to do just that. After months of preparation, research, care, and thought, we introduced several programs that we believe will define our work for years to come. After reviewing 20,000 applications, we selected and supported our first class of 20 Obama Foundation Fellows. We launched our first international program, Leaders: Africa, a year-long program that we kicked off by gathering 200 of the continent’s most promising emerging leaders in Johannesburg. We graduated our first cohort of the Community Leadership Corps, young leaders from Columbia, Phoenix, and Chicago, who are poised to make their cities—and our nation—better. We launched the Girls Opportunity Alliance, a global network of grassroots leaders who are helping ensure that every girl gets the education she deserves.

All of this work happened—and much, much more—while we continued our preparations for the Obama Presidential Center, a dynamic museum and public gathering space here on the South Side of Chicago. When constructed, the Obama Presidential Center will inspire and empower millions of visitors to make a positive impact in their own communities, while providing amenities and economic opportunity to the community that gave President and Mrs. Obama so much.

Throughout the report, you’ll read about this place we’re working to build and the programs that advance our mission. But more importantly, you’ll read about the people we’re investing in today that will help build the future we want to see tomorrow.

Thank you for being part of this journey. We’re looking forward to your partnership in the years ahead.

David M. Simas

CEO

Obama Foundation

The Center will be a historic addition to Chicago’s storied architectural and civic landscape. When completed, it will feature a world-class museum, vibrant public gathering spaces, a new branch of the Chicago Public Library, an athletic center which will also host activities and programs, and a variety of community spaces, from a recording studio to an auditorium to a sledding hill. It will reconnect and revitalize Jackson Park, returning more parkland to local residents than it will occupy. And it will generate billions in economic opportunity for families and businesses in the community that gave Barack and Michelle Obama so much.

But before a shovel hits the ground or a beam is raised, we’re consulting and engaging with our neighbors every step of the way. We’re taking feedback from them and making real commitments to them. We want them by our side, at every step.

It’s just who we are.

It was the crack of dawn, but many of our neighbors showed up. On a brisk, sunny morning in May, they rallied in front of Chicago’s City Hall to show their support for the Obama Presidential Center. A little sleepy, but all smiles, their cheers and dancing took over the morning rush hour amid sounds of horns honking in support. Shortly after, they put in their names—some after waiting for hours—to testify before the city about why they believed the Center belonged on the South Side.

Juanita Butler was one of those early risers. Born and raised in the South Suburbs of Chicago, Juanita did not grow up with access to the resources she deserved. She contracted lead poisoning as a young girl and was often teased for her disability. She lacked the safe public spaces that other neighborhoods had—spaces that would welcome her and give her a chance to grow.

In her eyes, the Obama Presidential Center will be that place. And in her testimony to the Chicago Plan Commission, the public body responsible for reviewing the land use and zoning proposals for large developments, she made that known. “I fear that you guys won’t understand how important this is for people that are shut out and don’t have representation that they need and I needed as a kid,” she said.

Juanita and a few dozen others took turns offering their support for the Center, the culmination of several months of community meetings, hundreds of stakeholder conversations, and a call for support that resulted in thousands of postcards and letters.

Bolstered by the testimony, the Chicago Plan Commission approved our zoning application to build the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park by a vote of 49-1.

This was a tremendous milestone—a moment of hard-earned celebration—but it also marked one of the final few days we had with someone incredibly important to our team, Desiree Tate, known to most as Dez.

Simply put, Dez was a powerhouse—an influential and recognizable leader with deep roots on the South Side who was greatly admired across the city and instrumental in bringing the Center to Chicago. Beyond serving as a critical advisor to us in our earliest stages, Dez was kind. She was present. She laughed with us, danced with us, and helped us get started on the right path. We still miss her.

Months later, in a turning point for our future in Chicago, the City Council unanimously approved several other agreements, solidifying the relationship between the Foundation and the city.

Dez would have been proud.

January 5

Lakeside Alliance announced as Construction Manager for the Obama Presidential Center

February 27

Public meeting about the Obama Presidential Center with President Obama

May 17

Chicago Plan Commission approves zoning application for the Obama Presidential Center

June 19

Obama Foundation hosts the Community Conversation at University of Illinois at Chicago

June 23-24

Community Leadership Corps Kickoff

July 18

Launch of partnership with The Honeycomb Project

August 28

President Obama greets supporters at our headquarters

October 29

Lakeside Alliance Resource Center opening

October 31

Approval of Use Agreement by Chicago City Council

November 18-19

Obama Foundation Summit

From their days supporting communities on the South Side of Chicago to the structure of their campaigns to the way they sought to lead, President and Mrs. Obama have always believed that change happens from the bottom up. The Obama Presidential Center Museum, from its design to its exhibits, will be no different.

The architecture of the Museum building echoes this idea of ascension—of a movement upward from the grassroots. Its form is inspired by the idea of four hands coming together, a recognition that many hands shape a place. Like these hands, each facade of the four-sided building will be a little different from the next, providing a unique but engaging view from each angle. The building will serve as a historic landmark in Jackson Park, welcoming visitors to the South Side and the Center.

The core Exhibit Galleries of the Museum will also emphasize the grassroots nature of President Obama’s path to the presidency, framed within a larger story of American democracy. The first exhibit level will focus on the historic precedents that made Barack Obama’s election possible—our nation’s founding ideals, the leaders and movements that challenged us to live up to them, and Chicago’s own prominent role in the expansion of civil rights and community engagement.

Subsequent exhibit levels will focus on the President and First Lady’s eight years in the White House, featuring dynamic exhibits about the events, policies, challenges, and accomplishments of the Obama presidency, rooted in the larger, complex discussion about democracy and the role of government that our nation has been having since its founding. The final exhibit level will also describe the work President and Mrs. Obama have led since leaving the White House, and will inspire visitors to push for change within their own communities.

The Museum experience will also include a view of life in the White House, with a full-scale replica of the Oval Office, along with a range of authentic artifacts from the Administration. A special Exhibit Gallery on the Garden Level will feature a changing series of installations that expand on the Museum’s core themes and encourage visitors to return again and again.

Once visitors have completed their journey through the four levels of the Museum, they will be invited to take an elevator to the Sky Room on the top level of the Museum building. The Sky Room will offer visitors a space to reflect, with extraordinary panoramic views of Lake Michigan to the East, the skyscrapers of downtown Chicago to the North, and the South Side of Chicago to the West and South. The Sky Room will be free and open to the public and can be enjoyed as a standalone experience without a Museum ticket

Visitors are then invited to descend to the public Garden Level where they will have an opportunity to share their own stories and to connect with other people’s submissions through a series of interactive programs. Visitors will also be encouraged to commit to engaging within their own communities, finding ways they can make a difference after leaving the Obama Presidential Center and returning home. The Garden Level will also feature a retail shop and café, connect to the Forum and its public programming, and link to several outdoor courtyards designed for both social interaction and quiet contemplation. The retail shop will feature unique Obama Presidential Center merchandise like t-shirts and tote bags, as well as books important to President and Mrs. Obama, and products from local Chicago artisans and businesses.

The café will feature coffee from local roasters, honey gathered from onsite beehives, and sandwiches and salads with fresh ingredients from the Center’s Fruit and Vegetable Garden.

The Forum will serve as a place to welcome the local community—a commons designed to bring people together. Largely built into the landscape of Jackson Park, the Forum will house numerous collaborative and creative spaces, including an auditorium, a broadcast and recording studio, flexible learning and meeting spaces, and a restaurant.

The Forum will also provide plenty of spaces for people to relax, eat, do their homework, or play a game of chess. The Forum is designed to serve as a hub for our neighbors, so these spaces will mostly be free and open to the public.

On President Obama’s 57th birthday, Louise Bernard, Director of the Obama Presidential Center Museum, asked our global audience for some help. She asked every person—whether they were young or old, in the U.S. or overseas, fired up and ready to go or shivering in the cold on inauguration day—to help us tell the story of the historic 2008 presidential election. We asked them to submit their photos, audio recordings, written reflections— anything that would help us honor the tenth anniversary of President Obama’s first presidential victory.

We couldn’t tell the story of the Obama Presidency without incorporating the voices of people who lived through, worked for, or witnessed this historic presidency.

In addition to building a Museum that immerses the public in the story of President and Mrs. Obama, we also want to help the public engage with the vast historical record of the Obama Presidency.

One of the primary ways to understand a presidency is through its records—through the papers, memos, drafts, speeches, texts, even postits—and now emails, blog posts, and tweets—that detail and document an administration. President Obama’s tenure came at an inflection point in record keeping: not at the dawn of the digital era, but as it fully took hold. Unlike other administrations, the vast majority of records created in the Obama White House—estimated at more than 95 percent—were born digital.

That’s why we are partnering with NARA, the National Archives and Record Administration, to digitize the remaining five percent of records— some 30 million pages—that exist on paper to create a comprehensive digital archive at the first fully digital presidential library. Our goal is to increase access to the records so that anyone can engage and study them, no matter where they live.

Though the Foundation will fund the digitization of these records, a special team of NARA archivists who are dedicated to preserving, reviewing, and providing access to the Obama presidential records will directly oversee this work and ensure the process and product meets all their relevant policies, regulations, and best practices. Throughout the entire process, those NARA archivists will maintain control and ownership of both the paper originals and digitized records and bear responsibility for making them available to the public in accordance with the Presidential Records Act, as they have for previous administrations.

*These records are owned and controlled by the Barack Obama Library, a NARA entity

In October 2018, our construction manager Lakeside Alliance set up shop in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago. Lakeside is a collective of five construction firms, four of which are local African-American owned businesses. Their new resource center is a space where local residents interested in learning about building things can stop by to enroll in workforce development training, explore construction and subcontracting opportunities for the Obama Presidential Center, or just learn about the construction industry as a whole.

So far, Lakeside has taken part in over 20 community meetings to discuss the Obama Presidential Center, hosted two union trade informational sessions, and organized two career and training opportunity fairs for those seeking job opportunities.

Lakeside also helped cofound the We Can Build It Consortium, a coalition of seven organizations led by Chicago Women in Trades, designed to recruit and place individuals into a pipeline for projects around Chicago and the country. The consortium includes two apprenticeship programs in partnership with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 134 and the Chicagoland Regional Council of Carpenters. IBEW Local 134 will work with Council of Carpenters to create and teach a test prep program to prepare aspiring electricians for the apprenticeship aptitude test.

Dejah Powell grew up splitting time between the South Suburbs and the South Side of Chicago. As a young girl she noticed that the mostly African-American neighborhoods she grew up in didn’t have the same resources as the mostly white neighborhoods on the North Side. There were fewer parks and places to exercise. Access to wellness was also limited, from counseling services to yoga studios. And grocery stores were hard to find and poorly stocked.

A couple states over in St. Paul, Minnesota, Emily Nordquist’s family found itself on uncertain footing after years of financial stability. Her mother passed away and soon after, her family lost their business and eventually had to sell their home. Financial stress dramatically changed her family’s life and the way they approached the world.

As Dejah and Emily grew older, those early experiences stuck with them. Dejah wanted to ensure her community could access the wellness resources she saw in other parts of the city. After moving to Chicago, Emily wanted to help young women achieve the financial wellness she struggled to find in high school. And though they both cared about their communities and were eager to grow as leaders, there wasn’t a clear path for turning their intentions into action.

The Community Leadership Corps was designed exactly for people like Dejah and Emily: young, community-minded, and full of leadership potential. For six months, selected applicants are given in-person trainings, get access to online coaching and project funding, and are connected to the broader Obama Foundation network to help them design, implement, and launch community projects.

In 2018, we launched the Community Leadership Corps in three cities: Phoenix, Arizona; Columbia, South Carolina; and right here in Chicago. That’s where Dejah and Emily first met—and first started work on their projects.

Dejah recruited two of her best friends to found black&well, an organization committed to integrating wellness into the black community in Chicago. black&well helps create a space for the community to talk about health issues. At events across the South Side, they’ve offered wellness education, yoga, guided meditation sessions, and conversations about improving access to nutritious food. Emily also founded an organization, Penny, along with two other Corps members. Penny helps young women throughout Chicago find ways to build healthy relationships with money by offering financial literacy education and tools.

During the six months she spent in the Community Leadership Corps, Emily connected with mentors, with peers, and with the young women she was trying to support. By listening to them, she shaped Penny into an organization that was truly responsive to the financial needs of young women in Chicago.

Together, Dejah and Emily have teamed up, hosting workshops aimed at furthering the goals of both their organizations.

Thanks to the Community Leadership Corps, two young women with different passions were both able to kickstart their careers in community change. And by working together, they’ve been able to expand the impact they would have made on their own.

Kickoff

This two-day introductory event is where participants take part in training activities that encourage selfreflection and help them build a basic organizing framework. After the kickoff event, participants are asked to recruit two other people in their network to join their project team in order to tackle an issue they identify

Bootcamp

The three-day bootcamp is where participants and their project teams got feedback on their plans, trained on the specific skills needed to implement their action items, and identified the resources needed to support their work.

Capstone

The six-month long program culminates in a two-day long event where participants from all three cities celebrate, reflect, and expand their network of emerging community leaders. We also put the mic in their hands; half of all workshops are led by the participants themselves, and event speakers are recruited based on the requests of Corps members.

Tiara Cooper

“My experience was groundbreaking— and honestly shocked me. We were given the opportunity to be ourselves and not who we are on paper. I was expecting things to have a boardroom feel, but this experience helped me look deeper within myself as to why I care so much about my community. I am now accepting the fact that I ʻbelongʻ and that my community needs real voices and direct representations of who we are, what we can be, and what we plan to do!”

Hanlyn Tyler

“I learned how to better organize and execute plans to empower my community. I am meeting with my school’s pride alliance to set up a transspecific mentoring program to help the younger or inexperienced trans students on campus know that they can do anything and they are not alone.”

Danielle Carty

“The Training Day helped me to connect with others who share the same level of passion for the community. I was able to be myself and navigate key skills to further my goals. I was also able to share my story, identify my values, and understand what I have to offer my community and the world.”

Rory Wheeler

Seneca Nation, New York

“Giving back is so important to me. I work hard every day for those who came before me and for those who will come after me. We need to be the change we want to see in our own communities, so I strive to be an example of resilience, dedication, and service to younger generations.”

Emanuel Milton

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

“I am bettering my community for boys and young men of color by providing a sense of fun, unity, and love through the work I do. Whether I’m helping at a community engagement event, or providing services to those in need, or just simply going to a high school to speak with students about their day, I try to incorporate those three things.”

Quintez Brown

Louisville, Kentucky

“I better my community for the boys that look just like me by changing the narrative around violence, masculinity, and professionalism. I refuse to succumb to the stereotypes that too often imprison us to a single story; instead I show young men of color that we can be whoever we want to be.”

Walk through the Little Village neighborhood on Chicago’s Southwest Side and you’ll see colorful murals, cute storefronts, and carts selling champurrado and paletas —traditional Mexican hot chocolate and fruity ice cream bars. But this vibrant four-square-mile neighborhood with over 50,000 young people also faces challenges, including unemployment and violence.

New Life Centers of Chicagoland was founded in 2005 to help young people in the neighborhood address these challenges. New Life targets young people between the ages of 12 and 24 who are most likely to be affected by violence or become involved with the criminal justice system, and provides them with mentoring and coaching opportunities, violence mediation, and street-based counseling.

Violence interrupters like Benjamin Estrada, Director of Street Outreach, travel to hot spots to preempt conflicts, interact directly with young people, and show them they’re cared for. “It takes a lot of persistence,” he said. “It takes a lot of love.”

But his work and the work of New Life is having a real impact: Between 2016-2017, shootings decreased by 14 percent in Little Village and homicides fell by a staggering 61 percent.

As an MBK Alliance Seed Community, New Life Centers will receive $50,000 in funding to aid the implementation of their work, along with technical support. And they will serve as a model for other organizations working on behalf of boys and young men of color across the nation.

There are nearly 3 million people in the city of Lucknow, in Northern India. Few can match the determination of a tenth grader named Kiran Sahu. After her father passed away, she spent much of her childhood in other people’s homes, cooking and cleaning to support her mother and her five sisters.

Her financial circumstances alone would have made attending school difficult, but as is so often the case with girls’ education, it wasn’t just a question of resources. Kiran has a brother who couldn’t stand to see her attend school. He burnt her books. He burnt her school uniform. And at age 13, he pulled her out of school five separate times.

But in the face of gender discrimination and high school fees, Kiran had champions. That includes her mother, who always encouraged her to get an education and choose a path different than the one she followed. And it also included Dr. Urvashi Sahni, the founder of the Study Hall Educational Foundation and the Prerna Girls School that Kiran attends.

Prerna is more than just a school. It’s an accepting environment that provides access to education for more than 800 girls, many of whom could not otherwise afford it. Prerna also provides girls like Kiran a safe space to discuss issues outside of school work, offering them emotional support and care beyond the classroom. And if girls are ever forced to leave, Prerna and Dr. Sahni are ready to welcome them back with open arms.

Dr. Sahni is one of the thousands of grassroots leaders the Girls Opportunity Alliance supports around the world. Her Foundation has helped expand girls’ education throughout urban and rural India and was one of the first organizations listed on our crowdfunding platform.

Thanks to the support of donors from around the world, we raised $25,000 to support Dr. Sahni’s efforts to provide a formal education to girls in rural communities like Kiran.

Today, Kiran is well on her way to earning the education she always wanted, and fulfilling a new dream: to become a police officer and prove to her brother that girls can run the world.

“Since the Fellowship, we’ve seen a lot of mobilization and engagement around our work. This kind of engagement is really hard to do in Mali because of the underlying mistrust of institutions and the people who make decisions. The way people see our work has changed—we’re a more credible entity and I think it’s helped us build trust between our organization and the people and communities we want to help.”

—Moussa Kondo, Mali

“I’d also add that the support and coaching I’ve gotten through the Fellowship has been incredibly valuable to myself and to my organization. A lot of ordinary people in Hungary who start NGOs haven’t studied these things. You just start doing it, and depending on your skills and expertise, some people are better at it and are able to succeed. It’s been such a precious thing to be connected with other Fellows because their stories are deeply inspiring; it’s a huge gift to me that I can work with them to learn and grow together.”

—Sandor Lederer, Hungary

“What’s been incredible for me so far in this experience has been the reminder to not engineer smallness for our movements. Celina and I both care so much about people’s power and about what can be done with local community assets, that it can be easy to focus more on the person and lose sight of the systemic change we’re working tirelessly to create. I have been challenged, and I have been pushed in a lot of ways when it comes to movement building and dismantling systemic inequality in our specific contexts. and the people and communities we want to help.”

—Nedgine Paul Deroly, Haiti

“I agree. I’d add that this Fellowship has helped me reflect on what I believe, and retrace the steps that led me to start really paying attention to social justice and carefully designed systemic oppression—as Nedgine mentioned before. I’m putting the pieces together, and thinking so much about the scale of the work we are doing. It’s important for us to work deeply in each community and understand it well, and it’s interesting to think about what that means as we grow and scale.”

—Celina de Sola, El Salvador

“I agree. I’d add that this Fellowship has helped me reflect on what I believe, and retrace the steps that led me to start really paying attention to social justice and carefully designed systemic oppression—as Nedgine mentioned before. I’m putting the pieces together, and thinking so much about the scale of the work we are doing. It’s important for us to work deeply in each community and understand it well, and it’s interesting to think about what that means as we grow and scale.”

—Clarissa Delgado, Philippines

“Wow, thank you. I really appreciate your humor and optimism, Clarissa. It’s also really inspiring to see another woman of color really crushing it in this space. Your perspective on education and how you approach it has been really powerful for me. And honestly it’s been therapeutic to be able to bounce ideas off of you, share common frustrations, and keep the long term vision for our organizations at the forefront. You really are an incredible support system I need, because this work is no joke!”

—Veronica Crespin-Palmer, U.S.

A journalist committed to the truth. An Olympian hungry to make an impact in a new arena. A young State Commissioner putting a new face on government. Abaas Mpindi, Simidele Adeagbo, and Mark Okoye came to Johannesburg from different countries, with different backgrounds and ambitions. But they all left forever changed.

For Abaas, that change happened in a flash, after hearing President Obama say his name during a speech commemorating what would have been Nelson Mandela’s 100th birthday. President Obama cited Abaas and his work training young journalists as a source of hope for the continent—someone who was leading change while embracing Mandela’s values. The mention boosted his credibility with the young people he trains and the organizations and officials who can help him expand his work.

Today, Abaas is working with fellow journalists he met at the convening to expand his initiative beyond his native Uganda. He’s using lessons he learned during program webinars on fundraising and capacity building to ensure that expansion is sustainable. And he’s working with the World Bank to focus on training refugees in citizen journalism so they can tell their own story. “The Obama Leaders: Africa program is the best thing that has ever happened to me,” he said.

Simidele’s story was quite different. After becoming Nigeria’s (and Africa’s) first female athlete in the sport of skeleton in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, she was looking for her next act. “I wanted to inspire, empower, and enable the next generation of girls in Africa,” she said, “but I wasn’t sure where to start.”

Luckily the convening and subsequent year-long program connected her “with the greatest think tank of leaders committed to moving Africa forward ever assembled.” Those connections helped give her the confidence to start making a difference on her own.

During the course of her year with the Leaders program, Simidele has worked with 400 girls across Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Morocco to build their leadership skills and help unlock their potential through the power of sport. “I didn’t wait to build a nonprofit,” she said. “I just got started by giving my time, sharing my knowledge, and mentoring as many girls as possible. As President Obama says, ‘Worry less about what you want to become and worry more about what you want to do.’”

And Mark Okoye, Nigeria’s youngest State Commissioner, made the most of his year among 200 of Africa’s best and brightest, leading to connections that will transform his community.

After meeting four other Africa Leaders at the convening from his state of Anambra, he later introduced them to the Executive Governor. Impressed with the group, the Governor asked them to form an executive committee to advise the Anambra government on youth empowerment and entrepreneurship policies. “We hope to engage, inspire, and empower youth over the years,” Mark said. “Watch this space!”

Mark also met a fellow Leader from Nigeria, Ifeanyi Orajaka, who runs a renewable energy company specializing in off-grid solar for underserved communities. After a spirited conversation, he encouraged Ifeanyi to pitch the Anambra State Government on a public-private partnership to build off-grid power in rural communities there. That led to a $5 million deal, and by November of 2019, a total of 12 communities with 10,000 people, 361 small businesses, 53 schools, and 11 health centers will receive uninterrupted power for the first time.

Mark, Simidele, and Abaas are just three people. But thanks to the connections they made and the continued support they receive through the Leaders program, they’ve been able to achieve far more than they could on their own. And as a result, thousands of lives will be changed for the better in their communities.

It’s enough to give you hope.

The two young women both knew how they wanted to spend their careers. But they also wanted the experience and expertise needed to advocate for change at the highest level. So they dedicated a year of their lives to learning, reflecting, and refining their work as Obama Foundation Scholars.

Ana Maria and Fatima became two of our first class of 37 Obama Foundation Scholars, embarking on a course of graduate level education at either the University of Chicago or Columbia University in New York. The programs are designed to give rising leaders with a proven commitment to service the opportunity to hone their skills in the classroom and connect with experts outside of it through technical trainings, community engagement, and mentorship provided by the Obama Foundation.

Rather than offer them a typical school orientation, we invited our Scholars to Chicago for a week so they could develop their own sense of community with each other. The Scholars participated in workshops focused on

storytelling, engaged in exercises to envision “the world as it should be,” beefed up their presentation skills through performances and public presentation work led by our friends at the Second City Theater, and sat for a conversation with President Obama.

After hearing from the President, we also offered them a literal chance to walk in his footsteps. We took them to breakfast at Valois restaurant, the President’s favorite greasy spoon while he was a law professor at the University of Chicago. We gave them a tour of Jackson Park, reliving its rich history as the site of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and examining the future site of the Obama Presidential Center. And we introduced them to two of President Obama’s earliest mentors, Reverend Alvin Love, who worked with a young Barack Obama in his earliest days as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, and former President of the Illinois State Senate Emil Jones Jr., who supported his burgeoning political career as a State Senator.

But the most important part of the Scholar’s orientation was a day of service—37 community leaders from countries all over the world, all getting their hands dirty as they worked with local residents to clean up and beautify the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago.

That spirit of service marked the tenure of the Scholars throughout their year in the program. Through organized dinners with local community members—and community outreach efforts they planned themselves—the Obama Foundation Scholars spent much of their school year working to improve their temporary homes. Bonaventure Dzekem, a medical doctor from Cameroon, led a community health workshop for Chicago’s African diaspora. And Stanley Ndambakuwa, who runs a community fund for education in Zimbabwe, hosted a conference on girls’ education with the Chicago YWCA.

Outside the classroom, the Scholars also gathered on a weekly basis to participate in technical trainings or speaker series. And they met again as a class for a November workshop to develop action plans that they have committed to implement once they return home.

They gathered again in Washington, D.C. in early March 2019 for another cohort-wide training and the chance to engage with development institutions and global leaders based in the nation’s capital who can help them propel their work forward after they graduate.

Now, as they approach the end of their year with us, Ana Maria, Fatima, Bonaventure, Stanley and the rest of the first class emerge ready to return to their home countries to approach complex global problems with an entirely fresh perspective, new networks, and a deeply rooted community that is committed to helping them achieve their vision for the world they would like to see.

You may already know Robert Katende’s story. He grew up in the slums outside of Kampala, Uganda, where his intelligence and talent as a soccer player helped him defy the odds to attend university and become an engineer. Knowing personally just how much potential existed in the margins of Kampala’s society, Robert began coaching soccer and later chess to the children in Katwe, the city’s largest slum. It was there that he coached and trained a young girl named Phiona Mutesi, who eventually became Uganda’s National Junior Chess Champion and “The Queen of Katwe,” with a best-selling book and Disney movie to follow. Vanessa Paranjothy’s story hasn’t received the same attention yet. She founded the startup Freedom Cups in her native Singapore, a company which helps provide menstrual cups to the 70 percent of women worldwide who don’t have access to adequate sanitation for their periods.

It was at the Obama Foundation Summit in Chicago where Robert, an Africa Leader, first met Vanessa, an Obama Foundation Scholar at Columbia University. When he heard about Vanessa’s work, he knew Freedom Cups could make a difference in the lives of the young women in his chess academy who, lacking sanitary products, would often have to miss school or chess practice during their periods. “How can we get this to Uganda?” he asked her.

This is one of the primary goals of the Obama Foundation: to ensure that people doing impactful work around the world know each other, support each other, and help each other achieve even more. We want people to see the work they do in their communities as part of a broader effort, because when they create change in their world, it ends up changing ours.

And while the Summit is a powerful way to connect leaders once a year, in one place, we want to create a way for those pursuing change to meet at any time, regardless of location—a digital platform that forms a human network.

We’re in the early stages of testing this platform with some of the emerging leaders from our programs, giving them a way to connect with each other and tap into the resources and expertise that the Obama Foundation is assembling. Eventually we hope to give all the participants of our programs—and maybe one day visitors to the Obama Presidential Center—a way to connect with other people around the world who share their passion for progress.

And maybe then you won’t just know Robert’s story or Vanessa’s story, but the story of thousands of changemakers connecting across the planet.

Because no one changes the world alone.