When James was a young boy and had been orphaned by HIV/AIDS, he heard about a government scholarship to attend school. Believing in the power of education, James was determined to seize this opportunity – no matter what it took. He sold a goat to buy a pair of shoes and made the trek from his village to Kampala to make an unannounced visit to the Ugandan President. Eventually, the First Lady agreed to meet with him and ultimately James received the scholarship he sought. James’ persistence and audacity set him on a transformative course to becoming an international development practitioner and working on behalf of his own family and community to find solutions to poverty. After studying financial and managerial accounting and development economics in the U.S., James helped design Uganda’s largest youth scholarship program with BRAC and the MasterCard Foundation. He advanced youth development programs in the country, most recently managing Educate’s youth-based social entrepreneurship program in Uganda, serving more than 250 schools.