BY TITHI MAYANI

Recently, Sultan Akif and his daughter Fatima Sultan visited Mrs. Anderson’s careers class to talk about youth empowerment and career choices.

Sultan and Fatima arrived at Milton District High School at 8 o’clock on February 14th. When the 9-year-old Fatima stood in front of a class of high schoolers and presented her ideas, the class was astounded.

Fatima Sultan informed the class about the research she had been doing on how people got into their careers. She told us that the majority of people who did her survey picked their careers based on availability. They didn’t really think about what they wanted to do with their lives and plan accordingly. This led many people to be unsatisfied with their jobs. She also told the class of the many resources and opportunities available to help students avoid the same fate by making the right decisions about their careers.

One of the other initiatives that she had taken on was a project called Pens for Libraries. She had made it her goal to manage the selling for flower pens. All funds of the pens would go to the women in Mexico that she and her father had originally bought the pens from. When asked about her motivation to take on this project, Fatima answered, “why can’t we be the people that help?”

The next one up to speak was her father, Sultan Akif. He spoke to the class about youth empowerment. He told them of his own story. Tired of working at Microsoft, he started his own company, Libraries in a Week.

Through this company, he traveled around the world and built libraries in small and poor villages, all in a week! After sharing his experiences about changing his life through changing his career, he showed the students that they could all achieve what they wanted if they tried hard enough. “Youth empowerment starts at home.” He stated, which was one of the many messages he conveyed in his presentation. “Leadership comes from within.”

All in all, the class had a great time meeting the father and daughter. We hope they visit again soon!