社区黑料

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 社区黑料 Newsletter

When then-16-year old Mariam Kaba won $1 million through the Transform Rhode Island scholarship three years ago, she saw it as her opportunity to create the change she wanted to see in her nearly 45,000-person community of Woonsocket. 

鈥淚 don’t see much positive representation from our community all the time,鈥� Kaba said. 鈥淚 was thinking 鈥榤y scholarship won鈥檛 get picked.鈥� But it did 鈥� and I was able to bring something so big to my community, a community that already doesn鈥檛 have the most funding in the world.鈥� 

The scholarship, , asks students to answer, 鈥渋f you had $1 million how would you target the lives of those in Rhode Island and how would you create change?鈥�

Kaba鈥檚 investments resulted in a number of youth-centered spaces and opportunities popping up across the city, including 120 calm corners in elementary classrooms to support students’ sensory functions, new physical education equipment for all Woonsocket elementary schools, job fairs, hundreds of donated books, and field trips to local colleges & universities, among others.

Kaba, who is now a rising sophomore at Northeastern University, describes the experience of winning the scholarship as surreal.

鈥淚t didn’t occur to me that I was the last person standing and I won $1 million,鈥� Kaba said. 鈥淏ut when I won, the first thing I thought was, 鈥極K, let’s get to work. I’m given this opportunity to help improve my community. What steps can I take? And when does the groundwork start happening?鈥欌��

When a teen leads, adults follow

Bringing Kaba鈥檚 vision to life meant working alongside adults with experience in project management and community engagement while keeping up with her student life at Woonsocket High School.

鈥淚n high school, I managed both classwork and extracurriculars like student council, being a peer mentor and participating in Future Business Leaders of America,鈥� Kaba said. 鈥淏alancing those things with my work with the scholarship came easy to me.鈥�

Kaba partnered with community organizations across the state like nonprofit . This collaboration helped lay out a roadmap for Kaba鈥檚 proposal, manage the scholarship funds and coordinate meetings with community leaders. 

The winning student also sits on the board of the Papitto Opportunity Connection Foundation for a year. This provides an opportunity for them to build their network and connect with leaders in Rhode Island. 

High schoolers can make a difference through spaces and support like this, Kaba said, and also advises teens interested in engaging with their community to 鈥渘ot be afraid to start off small.鈥�

This 鈥渟mall鈥� gesture, Kaba added, can be as simple as gathering a group of friends to organize a community cleanup or starting a school club or Instagram to advocate for something they鈥檙e passionate about.

鈥淪tarting off small is going to give you those steps to leading these big impactful projects,鈥� Kaba said.

The feedback Kaba received on her community investments, primarily from peers, community members and teachers in Woonsocket, was overwhelmingly positive.

鈥淧eople told me, 鈥業 was able to go to this job fair and I got connected to this job,鈥� or, 鈥業’m going to the Harbour Youth Center to get items from the food pantry you created and it’s been helping my family a lot,鈥欌�� Kaba said. 鈥淐ommunity organizations reached out to me to let me know they would love to find a way to work together and do their part to take action too.鈥�

Did you use this article in your work?

We鈥檇 love to hear how 社区黑料鈥檚 reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers.