Mariama Kabia is a senior majoring in International Relations and minoring in French. At Penn, she is a SPEC Director and an Associate Editor of Sigma Iota Rho Journal of International Relations. Mariama and her sister Fatmata (C’12) are the co-founders of the start-up social venture, Memunatu: a co-curricular publication for teenage girls (10-17 yrs old) in Sierra Leone that promotes literacy, female leadership, and economic development.

Through the project, they have leveraged mentorship from editors at top US magazines and government officials at the US Embassy in Sierra Leone. This past summer, they conducted focus groups with secondary school students and administrators in the country.

Mariama represented Memunatu in the Dell Social Innovation Competition: a global social entrepreneurship program involving 1,500 projects. Memunatu was selected as one of 15 Semi-Finalist Fellows and as such received a stipend to conduct field research. Mariama attended the Summer Institute on Social Entrepreneurship at Brown University and participates on the online training platform Simversity as part of the fellowship.

Mariama and the venture have also been recognized at the Clinton Global Initiative University Conference 2011, The Weiss Tech House Innovation Fund, and are currently members of the Wharton Venture Initiation Program 2011.

Learn more about Memunatu Magazine at:

@MemunatuMag