From a caterpillar to a Butterfly: The Transformation of a Lift Liberia Scholar
Before Patience Koenig became a Lift Liberia scholar, she was very uncertain and confused about her future. Both her parents had contracted illnesses that completely reversed her family dynamics. Instead of depending on their parents, Patience and her elder sister became providers for their parents. It was her mom who first became ill with hypertension and blindness. Later, her dad who had always been a strong farmer and the inspiration behind Patience’s interest in agriculture and food processing also fell ill with rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes.
With both parents seriously sick and unable to do anything for themselves let alone Patience and her sister, Patience’s dream of acquiring higher education was threatened. “ My family had to consistently pay medical bills to see my parents through their illness. As a result, there were lots of uncertainties surrounding whether or not I could go to college.” Patience told us as she reflected on those difficult years of her life.
While going through this difficulty marked by serious uncertainty and lack of any prospects for her future, Patience met a friend who told her about the Education Advancement Program( EAd) at SMART Liberia. The EAd Program is a gap year program that prepares top-performing high school graduates with demonstrated service to their communities for quality international education opportunities. The program recruits Liberia’s best and brightest high school graduates and puts them through a yearlong leadership development curriculum that deepens their understanding of Liberia and the world, cultivates their leadership and entrepreneurial skills, and prepares them to thrive as conscientious global citizens.
Once Patience learned about the program, she was hooked. Patience applied for the program and she was admitted along with 11 other bright and hardworking scholars. Together, they formed the 1st cohort of the Lift Liberia Scholars. “ I started the EAd program hoping that someday I can be a college graduate despite the situation I faced,” Patience longed.
Prior to joining the program, Patience had a lot of deficiencies in math that disappeared once she was in the program.“I had a poor math foundation, but through SMART Liberia tutoring, I was able to catch up on some topics that helped me excel on the SAT.” She also learned to become a better, thoughtful leader and a global citizen through the program. “SMART Liberia prepared me to live in the U.S.”.[They] instilled in me the value of paying it forward, and I’ve committed to doing just that in whatever capacity I find myself in the society.”
After subjecting herself to the rigors of the Education Advancement Program, Patience was admitted along with the rest of the 11 Lift Liberia Scholars in the 2017 cohort on partial scholarships to different universities and colleges in the US. The challenge for Patience, as well as the rest of her peers, was to raise the rest of the tuition to enroll.
Patience couldn’t depend on her family to raise the funds. Her parents barely had funds to cover their medical bills.
While in the midst of this uncertainty about her ability to raise the rest of her fees and enroll before the beginning of the 2018 academic year, SMART Liberia’s biggest donor, The Sofi Tucker Foundation came through. The Foundation committed to pay the rest of the fees for each scholar. With this news, Patience knew that her life would never be the same again:
“SMART Liberia and her donors changed my life….”
With the Sofi Tucker Foundation’s commitment, Patience was off the hook, ready for the US to study Environmental Science and Food Systems at Wells College, a private Liberal Arts College in New York. Like every student who studies abroad, she had her own share of the challenges and opportunities. From being inspired by America and the beauty that is on her campus, to experiencing multiple cultural shocks, racism, and an intense academic environment, Patience learned to survive independently:
I arrived on campus and realized that everything was different from what I imagined. I had to adapt to a completely different lifestyle, different food, and different cultures. I had to adapt to a more intense school environment, a robust curriculum, and a diversified student body. I felt homesick every day! I saw a beautiful campus. The classrooms(facilities) inspired me, but I was in a lot of shock. I had to do everything independently… I had terrible roommate experiences that made me feel like trash for many months. My roommate constantly disrespected me, and nothing was done about it after several complaints. I also faced some challenges in certain courses, but I was determined never to suffer in silence. I went to the writing center and math clinic whenever I needed help.
‘I enjoyed College’
Despite all these challenges, Patience did not only survive college, but she also thrived. “ I enjoyed college,’’ she said. And she did. Patience graduated in May with Magna Cum Laude from Wells College with a degree in Environmental Science and Food Systems. She completed her 4-year degree in just 3 years! She also joined many honor societies ( Phi Beta Kappa and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars) and won multiple awards including Cayuga Lake Watershed, an award given to a member of the graduating class with an outstanding academic record in environmental studies who has engaged in significant professional activities during their undergraduate years, and who shows promise for future professional development in the field. Patience also won a grant for Patience Cocoa, a company she developed in Liberia and continued to work on in college. Founded on her father’s farm in 2015, Patience Cocoa produces dark chocolate from 100% cocoa grown in Liberia.
Paying it Forward
One of the major lessons our Lift Liberia Scholars learn during the course of the program is the importance of paying it forward, the idea that the beneficiary of a good deed should repay the kindness to others, and not just the original benefactor(s). With this lesson, Patience has already begun her journey of paying it forward. She recently launched “the Gratitude Garden School Project” in a few high schools in Monrovia as part of her thesis and intends to expand it to as many schools as possible across the country. As part of the project, she wrote a school garden curriculum and implemented a school garden to teach school kids between the ages of 6 to 14 years basic environmental education and growing organic fruit and vegetables for healthy lives. ‘I want to use this project to connect Liberian kids to the food system and help them become better stewards of the environment,’ she says.
Beyond the ‘Gratitude Garden project’, Patience wants to develop her Cocoa business and provide jobs for young Liberians and help increase smallholder cocoa farmers’ yields through better training and empowerment programs in Liberia. “These farmers should have easy access to equipment, gears, seedlings, pesticides, storage facilities, and other agricultural products to enhance crop productivity,” Patience believes. “This, in turn, will help develop my community and create a boost in Liberia’s economy.”
For someone who struggled to graduate high school due to lack of funds and wasn’t sure she would ever go to college, studying in American was the last thing Patience dreamt about. But with SMART Liberia and her partner, the Sofi Tucker Foundation, Patience’s dream is now a reality. She is not only empowered with the right education, skills, and network to contribute to the social-economic development in Liberia but is also ready to bring others along in the process. Patience is no longer a caterpillar limited in its movements; she has become a butterfly ready to fly and change the world.
SMART Liberia is on a mission to equip bright and hardworking Liberian youth with the right education, skills, and network to develop Liberia into a prosperous nation. We have more than 25 students like Patience, all studying different disciplines abroad that are vital to the development of Liberia and the world.
But with COVID-19 and the accompanying shortfall in funding from our corporate and foundation donations, our organization has been hit hard, threatening the existence of our programs including the one that helped Patience and many other young people. If you are inspired by this story and want to support us and invest in young leaders like Patience, please donate to us via our fiscal sponsor here, selecting SMART Liberia as your donation designation, or contact us at info@smartliberia.org, if you want to get involved with our work.