Alumnus Ariza Nanji speaks about her experiences and growth since graduating in 2019.

In her four years at Barstow, Ariza Nanji ‘19 left her mark in a myriad of ways. She was a member of the debate team, participated in Model UN, started Politics Club, and led French Club, all while balancing a rigorous course load.

Outside of Barstow, Nanji ‘19 created the Global Virtual School, a nonprofit online school for students in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, where access to education was limited. Nanji ‘19 reached more than 200,000 students through this program and raised money throughout high school to expand the school.

Now a rising senior at Swarthmore College, Nanji ‘19 met with me to discuss what she’s been up to since leaving Barstow’s halls of fame.

Her freshman year at Swarthmore, Nanji ‘19 took a course called Environmental Justice Theory in Action. This course sparked her interest in solar energy and community outreach and allowed her to work with Serenity Solar, a solar installation group.

When COVID hit later that year, Nanji ‘19 decided to take a gap year and expand her nonprofit organization. During this time, she worked with the Worldwide Education Fund and collaborated with many community groups, especially those in the Badakhshan region.

“We worked with a lot of village educators in these villages to provide asynchronous learning sources and teacher training platforms,” Nanji ‘19 explained. “We had about 1,000 teachers that we trained to become educators of online learning, as well as how to create interactive classrooms that encourage critical thinking.”

When she returned from her gap year, however, Nanji ‘19 decided to take a step back from her nonprofit. She continues to do consultancy projects for the organization, including teaching English to families migrating from Afghanistan to Canada and providing alternative education systems for young girls in Afghanistan who are being denied an education.

Her decision to shift her focus away from the international education field actually came from her newfound passion for renewable energy, community development, and access to the green economy and jobs. 

“In my gap year, along with running the nonprofit, Kai [a Serenity Solar associate and one of the first female Black solar installers in the country] and I started thinking of different models of bringing solar education globally,” Nanji ‘19 said. “How do we create solar education platforms in the US and link them up with students in different areas of the world coming together in this hybrid space?”

This was the question behind Nanji’s grant proposal that was selected for the Lang Opportunity Scholarship Program at Swarthmore. She received about $25,000 for her community improvement project.

“Currently I’m working on building solar training and workforce development courses in two different environmental justice communities, one in Chester, Pennsylvania and one in North Philadelphia. We’re creating cross community linkages between environmental justice communities and looking at how we build bottom-up change,” Nanji ‘19 detailed. 

She is also working with a company called Revolve Solar to do installations in these communities and create apprenticeship programs for young adults. This allows anyone from the age of 15 to 24 to participate in development programs in the green economy or solar field and then participate in solar installations in their own community. This program and growth “has been really beautiful and exciting,” Nanji ‘19 said.

So while she may be less active in global education, Nanji ‘19 still sees education linked to many different fields and a key to realizing more equal accessibility. 

“It [education] has definitely always been something I was passionate about,” she said. “The more and more work I’m doing and learning from the communities that I’m interacting with, it just becomes more and more clear that accessibility to information and appropriate support mechanisms are critical to creating change.”

Nanji ‘19 is now studying abroad in South Africa as part of an environmental justice program and her economic major (she is double majoring in conflict and peace studies). The program is focused on South Africa’s energy crisis and creating a sustainable energy system. Her research studies how small businesses, especially local entrepreneurs from marginalized communities, will be able to access solar energy through different models. This program allows her to add an environmental justice lens to her major. 

Nanji’s work requires her to face systemic problems and oftentimes tragedy. It’s necessary to address them in order to create solutions. I asked her how she has been able to maintain a positive outlook throughout her eight years of experience.

Nanji ’19 says that, “[In high school] naivete and optimism helped me see past all that kind of negativity.”

She admits, though, that “I do think now that I’m working on more of a global scale rather than just one country and I’m seeing a lot of hardships, it definitely becomes harder. When working in Afghanistan for the past three years, especially as the Taliban took over, I lost contact with a lot of colleagues who had turned into friends.”

Nanji ’19 notes that Afghanistan has been a particularly tough case for her, “It’s difficult; I’ve been working with three projects in Afghanistan where I have to be the lead and motivate not just myself but also my team. Teams who are filled with people who are much older than me or have different experience, who are PhD students or who have been working in the field for decades but have different outlooks, maybe more pessimistic outlooks.”

Nanji ’19 hasn’t, however, let tragedy dampen her fighting spirit. “So how do you inspire people to continue when you’re faced with tragedy? It has been very difficult, but I think it goes back to the little changes that you see– every conversation that I have with a student or with a community partner and seeing the little things that bring a smile and connect different souls. I think that is the thing that helps you keep going, even when new projects arise in very politically difficult situations. I think that’s what keeps me going and saying yes to keep taking on more,” she said.

It is truly inspiring to see a Barstow alumnus continue to make a positive impact on the world. Given her incredible journey since leaving Barstow, I had to ask what advice she had for this year’s graduating class.

“Just don’t shy away from different opportunities. You never know what will spark your interest. I didn’t know that I would get into the renewable energy space. It was just something that I said yes to because a professor asked, and it changed my entire course of education. Just be open, especially that first year; it’s so crucial. Don’t get bogged down in following a certain trajectory,” Nanji ‘19 said.

During her time at Barstow, Nanji ‘19 was known for leaving sticky notes that read “leave a little sparkle wherever you go,” and it is clear that she continues to do just that.

Follow the Global Virtual School on Facebook for updates on this project!