All too often, students graduate from UK with lofty goals, but those goals are seldom accomplished or even sought after. Former UK student Flaget Nally is an exception to that group and is making a difference in the lives of girls in Tanzania.

Nally organized Giant Steps for African Girls, a 3K fundraising run/walk for the Tanzania Girls School Project, which will support the building of a school for girls in Tanzania. Nally’s goal for the first phase of the project is to open a nursery school later this year for 45 girls, and later hopes to expand to a larger school, covering elementary through high school education for about 800 girls, according to an April 1 Kernel article.

In Tanzania, few reach an eighth grade education, and girls are taught from a young age they are not as intelligent as boys. In most families, even if a daughter is the better student, sons are chosen first to attend secondary school. In most secondary classrooms, boys make up about 90 percent of the student body, and the small percentage of girls are passive among the predominately male students, according to www.educateafricangirls.org.

An all-girls school will give girls the education required to become financially independent if needed, achieve their dreams, assist orphans in the HIV/AIDS pandemic, protect themselves and others from abuse, and become teachers themselves.

Nally’s hopes for the school may seem too challenging given Tanzania’s social, economical and political landscape, but she is not without a thoughtful plan. The Tanzania Girls School Project is outlined in nine phases, with phase one including land acquisition and security, and phases eight and nine including plans for the distant future. A time allotment of one-to-two years is given for each phase as well as an estimated monetary goal based on research performed in Tanzania, according to the Web site.

Nally must be commended not only for changing the lives of so many young girls in Tanzania, but for inspiring students to become more involved in our world. Students should follow Nally’s lead in trying to follow through with their goals and living for someone other than themselves. They can start by making a pledge for the Giant Steps 3K, a short distance compared to what students in Tanzania walk every day in order to get an education.