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On this podcast, we strive to connect fascinating and successful people to the next generation. But today and throughout March, I’d like to change it up a bit and, in partnership with the Rise initiative, highlight some of the fascinating and successful people of my generation. Throughout this month, I’ll be talking with three of the winners of the Rise Challenge from various years. To begin this trilogy, I’ll be speaking with Hawi ‘Annette’ Odhiamno in honor of international women’s day. For her Rise project, she built on an existing project, designing a prototype for a water system to support farming in Kenya.

Rise is a program that finds promising young people and provides opportunity for life as they work to serve others. An initiative of Schmidt Futures and the Rhodes Trust, Rise is the anchor program of a $1 billion commitment from Eric and Wendy Schmidt to find and support global talent.

Topics:

• Hawi’s project: creating sustainable agriculture for farmers in Kenya
• How to learn material outside of your comfort zone
• How Hawi created an instruction manual in both English and Swahili
• The future of her project
• "What skills did you gain?"
• How to balance projects and high school
• Hawi's advice to other young innovators
• "What books have had an impact on you?"
• "What advice do you have for teenagers?"

From Kenya, Hawi works at the intersection of technology and agriculture. For her Rise project, she built on an existing project, designing a prototype for a water system to support farming in Kenya. Her model uses only recycled materials, and she has involved farmers themselves in its design. She also created instruction booklets for the rural farmers in both English and Swahili (for accessibility). In the future, she hopes to study International Relations and Chinese to create sustainable relations within countries in East Africa.

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