My life was set to follow the traditional path of all girls born in the small Maasai village of Enoosaen, Kenya where I grew up. Engaged at the age of 5, I was to be circumcised by the time I became a teenager—an event that would mark the end of my education and the beginning of my preparations for marriage.

But I had a different plan. First, I negotiated with my father. I would willingly agree to be circumcised (a practice known as Female Genital Cutting) only if he would allow me to finish high school. He agreed. Then a few years later I negotiated with the village elders to do what no girl had ever done before: leave my village in southern Kenya to go to college in the United States. I promised that I would use my education to benefit Enoosaen. Showing their support, the entire village collected money to pay for my airfare to the United States.

I received a scholarship to Randolph-Macon Women’s College in Virginia. Once the girl who grew up without electricity, I became the student who wrote papers on international relations and political science on the computers at the university library. In September 2011, I received a Doctorate in Education from the University of Pittsburgh

Throughout my time in the United States, I have engaged in efforts to promote awareness of the issues affecting girls in my community. As the first Youth Advisor to the United Nations Population Fund, I have traveled around the world to speak on the importance of educating girls, particularly as a means to fight the practices of female genital mutilation and child marriage.

Today, I am working to fulfill the promise I made years ago: to return to my village and give back. I am building a girls' school in Enoosaen so that the lives of other young African girls might forever be altered through education, empowerment and leadership. This is my dream.