Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program
Memory Nakazwe / Zambia

Province: Northern
City/Town: Mpika
Age: 21

Class of 2015-2018

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Scholar: Maxamed Maxamuud Axmed Scholar: Memory Varaidzo Jinga

Memory is from the rural village of Mpika in the northern region of Zambia. Memory grew up working on her family’s small farm where they grow maize, beans and sweet potatoes. After high school, she was sponsored by Goldman Sachs to attend an entrepreneurial workshop for promising young people and ended up starting a vegetable production business with her classmates. Later that year, she was selected to attend the African Leadership Academy (ALA) in South Africa. At ALA, Memory continued to pursue her passion for agriculture and was the Marketing Manager for the student-run enterprise Agroinnovation for Africa. She and her classmates grew vegetables and sold them to teachers and local community members, in addition to transforming leftover plant matter into organic fertilizer for the school’s gardens.

When she began looking for universities, her counselor recommended the University and Memory realized EARTH was the place for her. “EARTH is the full definition of what I wanted to do: it combines agriculture and environmental studies and those together are my real passion. I think it’s unique in the world.”