By Lee Heh Margolies

"If you educate a woman, you educate a whole society".  Those are the words

that propelled 23 year-old Winsome Toroitich to venture from her home country

of Kenya to attend university in the U.S. She is currently a junior majoring in

economics and statistics at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. Armed

with that education, she hopes to one day run her own business and help

improve the opportunities of women not just in her own country but globally.

Since January, Toroitich has traded student life in upstate New York for the work

world of New York City. As an intern with Global Goods Partners through early

April, Toroitich is gaining experience in all aspects of the organization’s

operations from product development to inventory to financial analysis to meeting

with GGP’s artisan partners.

Toroitich admits that, "having been brought up by a strong, independent mother

and observing other hardworking village women, I knew that women were a good

group to focus on." Winsome is saddened by the large number of school

dropouts especially among girls in Kenya and "the fact that many villagers

depend on their relatives in the big cities for income."  Toroitich hopes to help

change that by focusing on social entrepreneurship, education, and women.  Her

long term goal? To run a business that links together both her worlds in Kenya

and the United States.