Student Non-Profit Wins Dell Award; Presenting WESeminar

Shining Hope for Communities, a student-founded non-profit organization, has been named the winner of the 2010 Dell Social Innovation Competition.

The award is based on a world-wide competition among college students who create projects that can “make the world a better place.”

Shining Hope for Communities founded The Kibera School for Girls in 2009 in the Kenyan slum of Kibera, and is creating the Johanna Justin Jinich Memorial Clinic and a community center this year at the same site. Initial funding for the Kibera School for Girls was provided by the Davis 100 Projects for Peace program. The Dell award includes $50,000.

The group has also received a $50,000 grant from Newman’s Own Foundation and a $1,000 award from the MTV People’s Choice Awards this year.

Shining Hope for Communities includes Executive Director and Kibera native Kennedy Odede ’12, Managing Director Jessica Posner ’09 and current Wesleyan students Leah Lucid ’10, Ari Tolman ’10, and Inslee Coddington 10.

Members of the group will also host events during Commencement-Reunion Weekend, including:

• A WESeminar titled: “Shining Hope: Building A School For Girls In Kenya’s Kibera Slum” at 1 p.m. Friday, May 21, in Memorial ChapelModerated by Robert Rosenthal, John E. Andrus Professor of Sociology and a 2000 recipient of the Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching, Odede, Posner, and Lucid will discuss how a idea of building a school for girls in the middle of one of the most impoverished slums in the world went from a dream to a functioning educational institution in only a year. In just its second year of operation, The Kibera School for Girls currently provides 105 girls in grades K-6 a high-quality formal education and daily nourishment. This summer, Shining Hope for Communities will build the innovative Johanna Justin-Jinich Memorial Clinic, adjacent to the school. Rosenthal is president of Shining Hope for Communities Board of Directors.
• Shining Hope for Communities Benefit Brunch Saturday, at 10:30 a.m. May 22 in the North College Tent (with yellow flag)President Michael S. Roth, Kari Weil, visiting professor of letters, and Shining Hope for Communities co-host this benefit brunch for Shining Hope for Communities, the Johanna Justin-Jinich Memorial Clinic of Kibera, and the Chase Parr Memorial Wellness Reading Room ($25 minimum donation). RSVP to: Ariela Rotenberg ’10 arotenberg@wesleyan.edu.