As a teenager in Mutare, Zimbabwe, Anesu Masakura ’20 sold bread and fruit drinks every day to pay for high school. Later, he received financial support from the United States Achievers Program to attend Carleton.
“When I got to Carleton, I wanted to do something for those who were in my previous situation back home,” says Masakura. “More than 165,000 students in Zimbabwe don’t have access to educational assistance. I wanted to equip them with an easier way to make money and stay in school.”
Masakura is launching a nonprofit called the ThinkBIG Initiative in Mutare this summer. By establishing entrepreneurial projects at partner institutions (mostly high schools), Masakura wants to help students earn money to pay for expenses like tuition, uniforms, books, and transportation to and from school. Most students have to walk several miles to school.
ThinkBIG recently won a $10,000 Davis Projects for Peace grant, which Masakura will use to help more than 200 students learn how to raise chickens and sell eggs. He also plans to teach an entrepreneurship class to help them learn business management and basic accounting skills.
ThinkBIG’s advisory board—which includes Eric Carlson ’66 and Robert Scarlett ’66—and volunteers in Zimbabwe will keep the program running when Masakura returns to Carleton in the fall. Ultimately he hopes to expand to other countries.
“The deep passion to help young people in my position is what pushes me,” he says. “I know there’s a reward at the end: these kids going to school and becoming the best versions of themselves.”