Princess NDidi (Didi) Anofienem

I founded The Writing School LA, an educational nonprofit, in 2024 after leaving my position at a special education school. Our mission is to help achieve a 100% literacy rate for all of America's children. We are very passionate about the literacy crisis and helping to address it because we really know the long-term impact of children not being able to read - it increases their rates of incarceration, reduces their employment opportunities, and is really bad for all of society. It has been very much a challenge starting a nonprofit and getting it up and running, with community outreach, looking for partnerships, and applying for grants. It is definitely stretching me to my limits, but I'm still very passionate about it. I'm currently working in a voluntary position since the nonprofit is not yet financially solvent, and I do not take a salary yet. I'm also a doctoral student enrolled in a dual doctoral program that will result in an EdD and a PhD after 4 years. I'm so busy, but I'm doing what I'm passionate about, so it just feels right and I feel very content.