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Cooper Charkatz

The Bullis School

Class of 2024

Cooper Charkatz is a rising junior at Bullis. Cooper Charkatz is a student athlete who plays on the Bullis varsity baseball team and enrolled in honor and Ap classes.

Cooper Charkatz loves baseball and scuba diving. Cooper loves the ocean and marine life. Cooper has his boating licenses and scuba certified and is currently working on his advance certification. Also Cooper spends time practicing for his goal to play college baseball.

Cooper Charkatz is excited to be part of the International Leadership and Business program this school year. He participated the summer program and enjoyed helping change peoples lives for generations to come. Cooper can not wait to be a catalyst for more change. This experience will help give Cooper the skills to take to college where he hopes to major in business or engineering.

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Henry Singer

The Bullis School

Class of 2024

Henry Singer is a junior at the Bullis school. He is a dedicated student on the high honor roll and is enrolled in multiple Advanced Placement and Honors classes.

Henry enjoys playing soccer and golf, and is the President of the Model UN club. Henry is also a member of Bullis Student Tutors.

Henry attended the National Security and Intelligence internship this past summer, and is excited to help build small businesses in Nigeria. Henry looks forward to continuing Leadership Initiative’s connections with its partners in Nigeria.

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Davis Recker

Landon High School

Class of 2024

Davis Recker is a rising junior at Landon high school in Bethesda, Maryland. He a great student who will take many APs and honors classes this year.

Davis loves to play baseball and hang out with friends. He is very focused on both being the best at baseball and school at the same time.

Davis is excited to participate in the international business and development internship. He is excited to be part of a great group and work well to pursue one goal.

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Aidan Lee

The Bullis School

Class of 2024

Aidan Lee is a honor role student at the school of Bullis in Maryland. He is engaged in both athletic and academic activities.

Aidan enjoys are tennis and rock climbing. He has been keeping up with tennis for a little over 6 years now, and has recently taken up rock climbing as a second sport last year during the winter. When at home, Aidan tends to mostly write poems as a hobby and hopefully one day turn those poems into a poetry collection book.

Aidan is heard about this program from one of his good friends from school over the summer. Learning about this opportunity, he was eager to get started and put in as much hard work required. Aidan would like to apply the skills he will learn in this program into his future endeavors whether he still would like to pursue business or not.

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Our Business Partner

Sunday Ejembi

Business Statistics

Sunday Ejembi is a shoe cobbler in Bauchi State, Nigeria. He owns and operates his shoe-making business, offering well-made shoes at affordable prices to his community. He has assistance from apprentices, who help with the business and learn the craft of shoe cobbling. He is open to expanding his business further but has no specific plans for expansion.

Sunday Ejembi

About Sunday

-Our business partner looks up to his pastor as one of his mentors, he motivates Sunday to keep working hard on his business.

-Sunday is a huge soccer fan and loves to play and watch his team. He employs 5 apprentices.

-At home, he is married and loves his family and his animals; he has two kids and six chickens.

-Sunday prides himself as someone who puts care into his craft and cares about the small details, making his shoes perfect for his customers.

Sunday Ejembi

Community Impact

Sunday makes an impact on his community because he makes shoes for his community, while also making other leather items. He tries to give back to his community by offering apprenticeships to teens wanting to join the workforce and start their own businesses in the future.

Sunday Ejembi

Our Partnership

After our first meeting with Sunday, we started to create a logo based on his preferences. During the meeting, Sunday told us he preferred the colors royal blue, brown, and white. Working with that, one of our teammates created various logos oriented around his business. We hope to further assist Sunday with his business in the future.

Our Approach

FINANCIAL TRACKING

Financially literate entrepreneurs make growth-oriented financial and economic decisions for their savings, borrowing, and investments. Our team is working with Isiyaka Sa’ad to create an effective financial tracking system for his business finances, receipts, and daily costs.

OUR ADVERTISING

Our team identified target markets and key demographics to create a customer acquisition plan. We are working with Isiyaka Sa’ad to redesign his brand and create effective marketing campaigns.

BUSINESS IMPROVEMENTS

Steady growth is a critical component of creating self-sustaining communities. Our team is working to identify key areas of opportunity for Isiyaka Sa’ad and design solutions with grant money to improve his business to foster growth.

Our Fundraising

$409 RAISED

$341 NEEDED

$750 GOAL

Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced some of the highest growth rates globally over the past 10 years. While this means that people in these nations have become more optimistic about their social and economic future, the region continues to face a myriad of historical problems. In order to continue steady growth and achieve a future of equitable conditions in the region, our International Internship Program team seeks to build stronger communities from the grassroots level through fundraising for community development.

Funds raised are used to implement community-based education programs, pay staff to run the operations on-site, and invest in training for local leaders. Leadership Initiatives uses fundraised money to develop a network of support for actionable change and accountability between our team, the Leadership Initiatives staff, and the community stakeholders we work with.

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