It’s official—we have a winner in our We Solve contest with the office of U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power!
Her name is JoLynn Smith, and she has been working nonstop to better the communities around her. She may have just graduated high school, but she has already shown that she has what it takes to make a difference and to shape the future of not only the United States, but the world.
JoLynn Smith accomplished more than many of us have before she even entered college (imagine the things we could do without Netflix?). She was a 2014 ANNpower Vital Voice Leadership Forum Fellow. She served as an ANNpower delegate to the Trust Women Conference in London, where she helped develop key actions to fight against human trafficking and economic inequality. She was also a Her Campus High School Ambassador (Yay for HC alumni!!). Smith graduated from high school this spring and will be attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, studying for a degree in business.
Having her voice heard is a new and amazing experience for JoLynn. The 18-year-old was born with verbal apraxia, which basically means she couldn’t make the precise muscular movements to form words correctly. After years of speech therapy, she overcame the disorder. However, the lessons from living with it remain with her.
“Having a speech impediment taught me not only how to listen, but also that when I did talk, I didn’t want to just make noise, I wanted to create meaning,” Smith said.
Smith has a knack for winning contests like this. When she was only in eighth grade, her essay submission won in a competition at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. This helped her to understand financial stability within her own life, an opportunity that many middle schoolers do not have.
Even though Smith knew the importance of financial stability, she realized that many people do not receive that sort of education—including at her school. “So many people are left with fears and uncertainty in their financial life,” Smith told Her Campus. That’s why she decided to come up with an outline to bring a financial literacy program to her high school. Financial literacy, in Smith’s eyes, means helping people to “have a secure financial future regardless of the background you came from.”
With the help of her connections at the Federal Reserve Bank and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), she was able to begin the program at Shawnee Mission High School in Lenexa, Kan.
As if that wasn’t impressive enough, this financial literacy program has spread throughout Kansas and the Midwest. Smith’s program now impacts over 33,000 high schoolers nationally. Students can take classes in finance, wealth building, credit and budgeting. “It was very humbling. It was also very thrilling,” Smith said about how successful her ninth-grade idea has been. The program is now incorporated into Money Smart Kansas City.
Throughout high school, Smith continued to build upon her regional initiative. She remembered the lessons she learned at the Trust Women Conference about the risk factors involved in human trafficking. “Poverty is a leading factor that causes women to become enslaved,” Smith wrote in her essay. “Often, this poverty is caused as women do not have equal access to the financial mainstream…Women’s issues are truly human rights issues.”
Never again will she be tied down by not being able to be understood—Smith has found her voice. “Community empowerment is about finding meaning in your words,” she said. “Your voice gives you a unique perspective.”
She has tackled human trafficking and financial instability. Now, Smith is focusing on empowerment, especially when it comes to women’s rights. We can’t wait to see the future now that we know we have her, with Samantha Power’s added wisdom of course, working to make it brighter and better.
“Samantha Power is someone I really look up to. When she talks the whole world listens,” Smith said. “As someone who had a speech impediment, that’s something that I really look for.”
Congratulations, JoLynn Smith!