Bridgewater College grad uses education to help Tanzanians

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.”