It always makes us all very happy when “our” children complete their education and are able to live on their own.

This spring, one of our protégés, Sony Sherpa, left NAG with a doctorate in law in her pocket. This has never happened before at NAG and we are very happy for Sony.

Sony came to NAG as an older child. She lived with her single mother in Tokha, close to NAG. Her mother runs a very small, simple hostel and had no financial means to pay for Sony’s education. Even as a girl, Sony had the dream of becoming a lawyer and worked very hard for it throughout her school years. After Sony completed the 10th grade in Tokha at our partner school, she asked NAG if she could complete the 11th and 12th grade at NAG. We agreed and so Sony moved to NAG around six years ago. She did extremely well at school and started studying law in Kathmandu. Sony also completed her studies with ease and good marks.

After completing her studies, Sony was given the opportunity to work for a few months at the Ministry of Education as an assistant to the Minister of Education. During this time, Sony learned how a ministry works and was fascinated every day anew by the work of the politicians and bureaucrats. Sony would like to work in an area where she can help other people when she is qualified as a lawyer.

Sony has also completed the Aspire Leaders Program, which was founded at Harvard University. In this fully funded online course, she learned about different aspects of leadership, entrepreneurship, AI knowledge and the importance of seeing problems and issues as your own in order to solve them. During the course, she was particularly fascinated by the exchange with different people from different countries and realized how limited her knowledge is now.

Together with other Nepalese students, she then initiated the founding of the “Nepali Aspire Community”, a group of first-generation college students from different educational backgrounds. They aim to advocate for first-generation college students to access educational resources by mentoring them and helping them improve their professional skills by teaching them how to create resumes, cover letters and LinkedIn profiles.

With her first salary from the ministry, Sony bought a bakhu (traditional Sherpa dress) for her mother and two grandmothers. She said, “My family’s hope and belief in me has boosted my confidence and I am blessed to be surrounded and pampered by their love. I am aware that my lifestyle will change somewhat because of my work, but I assure you that I am and will always be happy with my work and want to help others.”

We wish Sony the best of luck for her future and hope that she will remain with NAG.