Meet Kristin Amrine, a freshman at Elon University who already has her life planned out. For five years, she has had her heart set on opening up a school to help promote education on a global scale.
Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio
Major/minor: Elementary Education with minors in leadership studies, environmental science, and Spanish
What is your goal to do after you receive your degree?: After I get my degree I want to get a plane ticket to Peru and build a large house where I can live and teach. I want to start out with finding five kids and create a program where they would be paid to go to school and get the education they need.
When did you decide you wanted to open up a school?: I decided junior year after I traveled to Tegucigalpa, Honduras in the summer between my freshman and sophomore year. They had a school there with a similar concept to mine and I fell in love with the school and the opportunities it gave to its students.
Why did you pick Peru?: In 6th grade, we did a project where we got assigned a different country to focus on because I missed class that day I got stuck with Peru. I wasn’t happy about this and procrastinated, in the end, I got a 110% with extra credit. Through the research, I fell in love with the country and my heart went out to the kids in this country where they have suffered and missed so many opportunities.
What is your hope for your school?: I hope that my school can become self-sustainable, and I won’t need to be there all the time. I also hope that education starts to become a normal thing versus how it is abnormal now. Lastly, I hope that my idea will inspire others and more schools like this will open up all over the world and improve global education.
How did you come up with this idea?: I combined my love for this school with my love for Peru.
How long have you been saving for this school?: I started saving money for my school after I went to Honduras so around sophomore year, it’s not a lot but it’s a start.