The Beginnings

Hi! I'm Crystal and in March of 2020, I joined the Stitching Talents team as the Entrepreneurial Course Developer. A school dedicated to the betterment of underserved women? I was there. I had just spent time in San Francisco learning about start-ups and NGOs, and hearing from seasoned entrepreneurs. My dad is also a small business owner, and I thought the Entrepreneurial Course Developing position would be something to both challenge and excite me. I was right, and through months of work and edits, I developed an entrepreneurship curriculum for the Stitching Talents school. This, however, was only the beginning.

Emmanuella Oppong changed my life when she suggested I apply for the Davis Projects for Peace Grant, the same grant she had received to start the Stitching Talents school. She suggested this money be used to fly me to Ghana, supply the school with the needed materials, and create a kiosk from which the students could sell to both practice their entrepreneurial skills and financially support the school’s needs. The 2020 year’s application pool, I was told, was extremely competitive, so I dedicated my time and thoughts to nothing but this grant; when the deadline came and my application was complete, it was a relief. To hear a few weeks later that I had won this grant for Union College, was jaw-dropping. And though I began recording my lessons online, I found out one week before my intended departure date that I would be going to Ghana after all, to Egyam, a rural village outside of the city of Takoradi, all located in the Western Region. And so began my journey to the Gold Coast...

- Crystal