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Misha Beiramee

St. Andrew’s Episcopal School

Class of 2025

Misha Beiramee is a rising 10th grader at St Andrew's Episcopal School. She is taking an Iranian-American student who works hard to achieve her goals.

Misha Beiramee is very eager to play tennis for her school this school year, and many more to come. During her free time, she likes to read, cook, and practice the piano.

Misha Beiramee is excited to be participating in the International Business & Development Internship. She hopes to someday open up a business of her own and is greatly looking forward to helping another person with their business.

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Shyna Kashi

Montgomery Blair High School

Class of 2025

Shyna Kashi is a sophomore at Montgomery Blair High School. She is an Honor Roll student who is also part of her school’s science, technology, engineering, and math magnet program, where she takes advanced level and advanced placement classes.

Shyna enjoys playing soccer for her school and club team, and running indoor and outdoor track for her school. She participates in HOSA, where she is part of the finance team which works to fundraise and apply for grants to benefit the club, and last year she qualified for the state leadership conference in three different events. Additionally, she is part of her grade’s class council, where she was voted by the student body to be vice president of her grade during her freshman year. In her free time she enjoys baking, playing sports with her friends, traveling, and taking online computer science and engineering classes.

Shyna is looking forward to the International Business & Development Internship because she cannot wait to work with a real life entrepreneur and gain experience with running and building a business. She hopes to run her own business in the future where she explores how technology can be used to further advance medicine, and is excited to use all the experience she gains from this internship in that future endeavor.

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Teeda Izadi

St. Andrew's Episcopal School

Class of 2025

Teeda Izadi is a sophomore at St. Andrew's Episcopal school in Potomac, Maryland. Teeda is a high honors student and enrolled in challenging exciting courses.

Teeda enjoys spending time with friends and family, playing the piano, and playing tennis and lacrosse. She is on the tennis and lacrosse team at St. Andrews and is the co-leader of a club called Girls Who Start. GWS teaches girls about worldwide women-owned businesses and inspires young girls to be entrepeneurs themselves. She is also a part of the Middle Eastern Student Association and Babysitting club, and is one of two 10th-grade class representatives in the Student Government Association (SGA) at St. Andrews.

Teeda is very excited to be a part of the Business and Development internship with Leadership Initiatives this year. Not only is she looking forward to helping businesses in Bauchi, Nigeria, but she looks forward to creating new relationships and learning more about business, relations, and leadership. In the future, Teeda aims to also partake in the public health internship as she seeks interest in the medical field as well.

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Our Business Partner

Jamila Bitrus

Fast Facts

Mrs. Bitrus runs a hair salon that is just a 3 minute walk away from her house

She sells hair products and styles women’s hair

Mrs. Bitrus is passionate about keeping up with style and fashion trends

Jamila Bitrus

About Jamila

Jamila Bitrus is a 34 year old woman who lives in Bauchi State, Nigeria. She lives with her husband, who is a civil servant for the Bauchi State government, and her 3 kids. Jamila runs a hair salon three minutes away from her home where she does women’s hair and sells hair products to help people keep their hair healthy and beautiful. What sets her apart from other local stores in her industry is her ability to stay up to date with new trends. She is always in the know with what is popular at the time, so she is able to cater to what her customers want. In the future, Jamila hopes to be able to expand her business to also do nails. Jamila loves to serve her community and that drive was one her biggest motivations in starting her business. Her inspiration for starting the business came from her interests– hair clothing, beauty, and cosmetics. She loves dressing herself up and doing her hair so she figured, why not use my skills and expertise to help others look good as well.

Jamila Bitrus

Community Impact

Jamila is very involved in her community, and she hopes to be able to expand her business to employ more hardworking women just like herself. Being able to run a successful business not only helps Jamila and her family, but also her entire community.

She currently has one employee working for her, but if she is able to expand that to more people, not only will she be able to help more women looking to get their hair done, but she will be able to give so many more women the opportunity of having stable jobs doing something they love. Stable jobs can sometimes be hard to find in Bauchi, so her business can greatly impact the economy of where she lives.

By running a successful business, Jamila will be able to empower and motivate other young women in her area to start their own businesses. This change can break the cycle of poverty that has been affecting Bauchi State.

Jamila Bitrus

Our Partnership

Mrs. Bitrus is very excited to be working with Leadership Initiatives’ International Leadership and Business Interns. Our team has been meeting with Mrs. Bitrus every month where we have been planning on how to help her expand her business, gain more customers, and become more profitable.

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

$950 RAISED

$50 NEEDED

$1000 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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