along albany road
iPals and iPeers Student Entrepreneur Launches Online Global Tutoring by Jessica Day When Deerfield junior Zahra Rawji was 14, her mother suggested that she was old enough to start exploring ways in which she could make a lasting difference in the world. Zahra decided to “go global.” Soon after her mom’s suggestion, Zahra, whose family has roots in East Africa, visited a school in a Nairobi slum. She and her sister met with a group of seventh graders there, and asked them what they wanted most in life. Their answer was clear: They aspired to become doctors, and teachers, and politicians, and lawyers, in order to help their fellow countrymen and women. But to achieve these goals the seventh graders felt they needed two things that were in short supply—access to the world beyond their hometown and a good education. As the conversation flew back and forth between Zahra and the students, slowly but surely the concept for iPals began to grow.
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Fall 2013