Maria Skuratovskaya
has worked as a portfolio manager for the World Bank and Alaska
Permanent Fund Corp since her 1997 graduation from Virginia's
Bridgewater College, but it was moonlighting in development and
building a school in Tanzania that really fulfilled her, she said
recently.
“The whole time I was at the World Bank, I wanted to go out and
do something on the ground,” Skuratovskaya said. “It’s fine to
know that the returns you’re generating will go to help a poor
farmer in central Africa, but you don’t get to see that or feel it.
You spend all your time talking to Wall Street bankers."
Skuratovskaya’s interest in Tanzania began with a trip to the
country to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and go on safari, where she met
Gasper Naftal Mbise, who wanted to develop a school in his hometown.
Skuratovskaya applied her business knowledge and what she had learned
about economic development and NGO management from Bridgewater to the
project.
“We pooled our resources and retained a local
architect, commissioned the building and watched it go up,”
Skuratovskaya said. “…For many of them, it’s the only place
where they can be kids. Even if we only educate one child who goes on
to become a minister, it will have a positive effect on future
generations. It will be like dropping a stone in the water and
creating ripples of change.”
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