Global travel program opens world to underserved teens

Every salient experience Miami entrepreneur Leigh-Ann Buchanan remembers having came from travel.

That is why when she worked as a mentor to high school students in the Overtown neighborhood, she saw that many of her students from underserved communities had never left the country. This not only shut them out from having life-changing experiences, she said, but they often missed out on college scholarships because their résumés didn’t stack up to those of students from higher-income backgrounds.

What ultimately led her to found the South Florida-based Nyah Project in 2014 was seeing how a program with a school in Ghana founded by a family friend would often bring students from the U.S. to have cultural exchanges abroad.

“I would always get the newsletters and I would see all these amazing college students that would have great experiences in Ghana, and I was like, ‘Why can’t the kids that I am mentoring in Overtown have these life-changing experiences?’ ” Buchanan, 33, said.

Since then, the Nyah Project has funded 10-day leadership trips to 57 high-performing high school students throughout underserved communities in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. All 57 have gotten into colleges around the country and more than 90% have received full scholarships to college.

But the leadership program — which gives students of color the chance to meet with business leaders, U.S. ambassadors, local students and entrepreneurs — is not just a vacation. The application process is highly competitive. Eligible students must have at least a 3.0 GPA, have demonstrated volunteer experience and live in a household whose family income is under $75,000 annually.

While they are abroad, students also participate in cultural exchange opportunities. They learn about traditional Balinese dance in Indonesia, mentor younger students in Namibia and visit the home of the late Nelson Mandela in South Africa.

Kemoni Alexander, 20, was a

Nyah fellow in 2017 and traveled to Namibia and South Africa, her first time out of the country (minus a quick family trip to The Bahamas).

“The neighborhood that I grew up in wasn’t the most resourceful, my schools were underfunded,” Alexander said. Traveling and getting to know a different culture helped her understand that the lack of local resources existed beyond her own world.

“It’s not just happening where I’m from, it’s happening all around the world . ... That really made me think that we’re all the same, it doesn’t matter where we come from,” Alexander said. “It’s mind-blowing to me that I was able to have that opportunity because other people saw that potential in me and believed in me.”

MIAMI HERALD 2016 High school students in the Nyah Project out of Miami travel to places like Ghana, learning while experiencing new cultures. Every student who has participated has gone on to college.