For many, choosing a career in non-profits seems like a dream. For BYU graduates Crys Kevan Lee, Jessica Hogstrom, and Julie Ford Brenning, however, this dream is their everyday reality.
As an employee of Empower Playgrounds, Crys Kevan Lee works with children in Africa. Lee helps provide the children a way to study at night by overseeing the installment of Empower Playground merry-go-rounds at schools that double as power generators for alternative light sources. Lee works from Salt Lake City in conjunction with on-site employees in West Africa to help fund girls' scholarship programs, oversee wells that provide clean water, and manage the forty-seven merry-go-rounds placed in West African schools.
Across the country, Jessica Hogstrom works from Williamsburg, Virginia in conjunction with the College of William & Mary and non-profit company, AidData. Analyzing data using various methods such as remote sensing, Hogstrom provides companies with a visual representation of their aid disbursement to better understand where their money is going. Using geocoding technology, Hogstrom and her team work to understand where aid should go and how aid dollars should be disbursed to help aid global development in foreign countries.
Julie Ford Brenning works to end gendercide in Asian countries. Working with the non-profit organization, Give Her Life, Brenner utilizes both her Chinese language skill and her drive tp aid women targeted by their gender in foreign countries. Brenner is currently working on a publication to help people better understand gendercide in China, as well as working in conjunction with Give Her Life to analyze data concerning gender selection in Asian countries.
What is the common factor that unites these three amazing women and their high profile careers in non-profit? All three became involved with WomenStats Project while studying at BYU. As students working with WomenStats they gained valuable skills, such as coding and data analysis, that helped prepare them for real-world experience to enter non-profit careers in global development upon graduating.
Want to know more about getting involved? Follow the link: www.womenstatsproject.org to learn more.