We arrived in Rwinkwavu just before 9am. The dusty moto ride from the bus station to the countryside brought us to an open field where young women in white t-shirts were already gathering. Feelings of excitement permeated the still cool air as the young women began to sing and dance in circles. We soon found ourselves a welcome part of …

For Asifiwe, a 18-year-old girl, being young isn’t an excuse for not earning a small income. Her dream of becoming a doctor was born with her dad’s support. Unfortunately, he died when she was still in primary school and her mother couldn’t afford to send Asifiwe and both her brothers to school. Yet Asifiwe didn’t let the shocking moment of losing her father and her family’s limited resources ruin her future. Instead she worked hard and showed her mother that she deserves to go to school.

Brandon Stanton, a photographer and creator of Humans of New York, set out in 2010 to document the lives of New Yorkers – but his interactions with the strangers he photographs doesn’t always end with a click of the camera. Early this year he raised more than $1 million to send a group of sixth graders from one of Brooklyn’s most crime-ridden neighborhood’s to visit Harvard.

One of our first partner organizations was the Akilah Institute, a college that offers a unique model of market-relevant education empowering graduates for success in careers and leadership roles.

Last November I had just moved to Rwanda to launch Resonate. As I prepared to teach my first ever Storytelling for Leadership workshop in country, I reflected on how fitting it was that my first group of students would be the graduating class of Rwanda’s only women’s college. As a Smith College graduate, I know firsthand how inspiring it can be to study alongside other dedicated, smart, passionate women.

We have had so much fun these past few weeks working with the Akili Dada scholars and fellows in Kenya. They put up a great post about why storytelling is important as they empower the next generation of African female leaders.

This summer, I helped Resonate transition to box.com, an online file sharing system. Box does a number of cool things like update documents to the latest version in real time (no more deleting / reposting or saving drafts as “v1; v2; v3…”) and lets you collaborate within the platform by commenting, tagging, and assigning or completing tasks. I geek out on it because it’s a centralized space for team collaboration and massive productivity. Resonate loves box.

With the lingering effects of jetlag taking their toll, I arrived on campus at the Akilah Institute for Women on Monday morning at 7:30am still a bit bleary eyed. This was my first time visiting Akilah, the partner group who will host the inaugural workshop in Resonate’s pilot project.

In my circles, when we ask “what’s your story?” we want to learn about where someone grew up, what they do for a living, their plans for the evening or something similarly superficial. In contrast, when Resonate leads a workshop with this underlying question, they are probing participants to demonstrate their values through a story of struggle and triumph.