Fatuma Abdulkadir

Fatuma Abdulkadir is the founder of Sophie Academy, a tutoring agency she established to provide affordable math tutoring to students from lower-income families after observing the impact of lost government funding on her former Varsity Tutors students. She co-founded the Humanitarian Aid Network in response to the Sudan War to assist families with resettlement, monthly expenses, surgeries, and medications in neighboring countries such as Egypt and Ethiopia. Fatuma has worked in multiple startups including 2 Windy and Jamal Innovation, focusing on product development from concept to patent and manufacturing stages, and recently joined the AI automation startup Quantify. A mathematician who majored in math at Minnesota State University, Mankato and graduated in 2022, she draws on her background to create structured learning programs like the Affordable Tutoring Program. Fatuma speaks four languages including English, Amharic, and Oromo, volunteers as an interpreter for Language Line Solutions aiding immigrants, and credits her success to her father's encouragement toward education, empowering female leaders at her university, the privilege of an American education, and her personal definition of success measured by positive impact on others rather than societal standards. She received key career advice from her mentor Yvonne, founder and CEO of an internet company and professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato, who emphasized that the glass ceiling is breakable and that gender or race should not limit ambitions.