HerStart International Fellowships offer young professionals the chance to grow, connect and create impact in unique ways. Hear from 3 alumni on what they gained and what they are doing now.
Different Paths, Shared Impact: The Journey of 3 HerStart Fellows
By Eesha Nasir Chaudhry | Global
Author: Eesha Nasir Chaudhry, YCI staff member
Every HerStart International Fellowship with Youth Challenge International is a unique experience. From urban hubs to coastal communities across East and West Africa, each placement offers young professionals the chance to grow, connect and create impact in innovative ways. For YCI alumni Osayuware, Katherine and Simon, the HerStart Fellowship became more than just a CV boost; it was a transformative life experience that shaped their skills, perspectives and interests that continues to impact them years later.
Meet Osayuware
A Political Science graduate from Brock University, Osayuware immigrated to Canada from Nigeria as a child; an experience that shaped her passion for global development and gender equity. When she found HerStart online, she saw a chance to return to a context that felt like home and collaborate alongside inspiring women entrepreneurs in Northern Ghana.
Wyatt (another International Fellow) and Osayuware collaborating together in YCI”s Ghana office.
Osayuware was one of the very first International Fellows in the program, starting a 6 month placement back in March 2022. As a Communications & Training Fellow placed in Tamale, Ghana, she wore many hats: supporting the YCI team and local partners with recruiting participants, delivering skill building workshops, mentoring entrepreneurs and planning graduation events. Right off the bat she had some clear wisdom to share with others interested in the experience:
“You can’t go in with strict expectations. You have to be willing to say yes, take risks and put yourself out there… that’s how you grow.”
Her most powerful memory was a true “full circle” moment of attending a graduation event for women entrepreneurs in her first week in Ghana – knowing very little about the realities and hard work that go into the program at the time – and then months later standing at another graduation for entrepreneurs she had personally helped recruit, train and mentor. Thinking back fondly, she shared how “it meant everything to me to hear them talk about how supported they felt…to hear them mention me by name. I’ll always carry that with me.”
At the time of writing, Osayuware is now a Program Analyst with the Ontario Public Service and continues to volunteer as a camp director to empower young girls.
Meet Simon
With a degree in Business and Computer Science from the University of British Columbia, Simon’s interest in international development was sparked by a service-learning experience in Kenya he did through his University. He discovered HerStart through a social media post that immediately attracted his interest. Not long after he was offered a position in Zanzibar, Tanzania starting in September 2023. He was ready to make an impact, see more of East Africa and use the Kiswahili language skills he had started gaining in Kenya.
Simon and Lawrence (YCI staff) at Start Up Week in Zanzibar, Tanzania.
One highlight of his volunteer experience was conducting a training of trainers to align country offices on evaluating Catalyst Fund pitches, while also co-running the pitch event for women entrepreneurs to present their business ideas for funding in Tanzania. He also took the lead on co-designing and implementing a digital skills literacy program to pilot a curriculum tailored to local women entrepreneurs’ real needs.
“Seeing the improvement in presentation skills and speaking confidence from before our workshops to the final pitches was incredible. Overall, getting to work in cross-cultural contexts helped hone my communication and project management skills in ways I still use today.”
The HerStart Fellowship also deepened Simon’s understanding of responsible development practices, especially through MEAL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability & Learning) methods. After his international volunteer experience, Simon continued to apply his business and digital literacy skills working at a private investigations firm focused on corporate risk and corruption, as well as an Artificial Intelligence tutor, and is now a Consultant at an international consulting firm working with private companies.
Meet Katherine
Based in Ottawa, Katherine built her career in non-profit and impact communications before joining HerStart. Interestingly, she has a background in community kinesiology. Her placement took her to Bolgatanga, Ghana in January 2024, where she blended her love for storytelling with her commitment to women’s empowerment.
Katherine supporting a recruitment and storytelling event in Ottawa after her fellowship.
As a Communications and Marketing Fellow, she helped facilitate social media and storytelling workshops to improve business brands, photographed and filmed entrepreneurs to showcase their products, services and impact, and contributed to stories in reports for Global Affairs Canada and YCI platforms. She shared how valuable this support was to the entrepreneurs she collaborated with in Ghana: “A lot of the women really showed their appreciation for having professional photographs for their business that they could use in marketing materials.”
For Katherine, the most rewarding part was interviewing women in both Bolgatanga and Tamale and hearing firsthand the resilience, creativity and drive that fuelled their business journeys.
“Each woman had a pretty significant impact on me. They’re all extremely driven and motivated and have also shown so much resilience. And many of them had the vulnerability to share those experiences they overcame to get to the success in their careers that they achieved with the entrepreneurship program.”
Now working in international development communications with CARE International, Katherine says the HerStart Fellowship expanded her worldview, gave her a chance to practice concrete skills and shaped the way she approaches storytelling in global contexts.
3 Fellows, One Message
Whether they were mentoring entrepreneurs in Ghana, piloting digital skills programs in Tanzania or amplifying women’s voices through storytelling, all 3 alumni agree: take the leap and apply for a HerStart International Fellowship! You will gain knowledge, hone your skills, travel the world and come back a better version of yourself.