Future is Female Inc., a nonprofit organization fighting for female empowerment and gender equity started by two Blue Valley West students, was one of the winners in the recent 2022 T-Mobile Changemaker Challenge.
What is it? Future is Female aims to “educate students on the daily and systemic struggles that women endure, and provide solutions, opportunities, resources, etc. to overcome [these] struggles.”
- Each school-based chapter of Future is Female focuses on a different topic every month and has participating students do activities to educate them on things like self-defense and how to volunteer in their communities.
- The organization says it also aims to “help young women navigate through elementary, middle, high school, and college.”
Who’s behind it: Future is Female started as a school club in 2020, founded by then-BV West freshman Sadiya Abid, who says the idea came, in part, from her upbringing.
- “Since I was really young, my mom has always instilled the ideas that everybody’s equal and everybody should be given the same opportunities,” she said.
- Abid decided to team up with another current Blue Valley West student, Kavya Parikh, to officially launch the organization at their school.
Growth: After a successful first year with the club, Abid and Parikh decided to expand it further by turning Future is Female into an actual nonprofit.
- With help from mentors, the club was able to raise enough money to begin supporting other chapters at other schools.
- Now, Future is Female has 11 chapters across the country, including in California, Texas and Massachusetts.
- “Once we turned into a nonprofit organization, we really started to get the word out, especially through social media and our website,” Abid said.
The award: For the T-Mobile Changemaker Challenge contest, Future is Female took home first place in the “family” category.
- T-Mobile’s nationwide contest allows teams of young innovators a chance to compete for mentoring and cash prizes.
- In addition to their $5,000 cash award, Abid and Parikh get to go to Seattle — where T-Mobile is headquartered — for a leadership conference.
Key quote: “We really want to see more chapters develop and in more states, especially,” Abid said. “But even after Kavya and I graduate high school… we still want to make sure [Future is Female] has a lasting impact.”
