Women Inspire Us

Kakenya Ntaiya turned her dream of getting an education into a movement to empower vulnerable girls and bring an end to harmful traditional practices in Kenya. Meet two students at the Kakenya Center for Excellence, a school where girls can live and study safely — and uplift their community along the way. “When you empower a girl, you transform a community,” Ntaiya says.

Confidence is the necessary spark before everything that follows,” says educator and activist Brittany Packnett. In an inspiring talk, she shares three ways to crack the code of confidence — and her dream for a world where revolutionary confidence helps turn our most ambitious dreams into reality.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie a renowned Nigerian novelist was born in Nigeria in 1977. She grew up in the university town of Nsukka, Enugu State where she attended primary and secondary schools, and briefly studied Medicine and Pharmacy. She then moved to the United States to attend college, graduating summa cum laude from Eastern Connecticut State University with a major in Communication and a minor in Political Science.

Amma Asante is the director of the Hollywood hit movie Belle and found that working in Hollywood where only 0.4% of directors are black females, she has been under pressure to live up to a definition bestowed upon her; one that did not match own own self definition. A passionate speaker, Amma asks us to consider that we are all a combination of many worlds put together and when those worlds meet, progress can follow.