Sabrina Guo, now a sophomore in college, started her international nonprofit, Girl Pride International, when she was only 13.
Guo now studies at Yale University, where she majors in political science, while acting as chief executive officer of the organization.
“It takes focus, hard work and will to balance the academic rigor, extracurricular commitments and my humanitarian endeavors,” she said.
Guo started the nonprofit in 2018 when she was inspired by former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let Girls Learn Initiative.
“I expressed my admiration for Mrs. Obama’s girls empowerment work around the world and shared my own aspirations,” Guo said.
She wrote a letter to Obama about Guo’s international pen-pal program called Crossing Borders, which connected Syosset students with Syrian refugee girls.
To Guo’s surprise, Obama replied to the letter.
“Amazingly, she called my school, commended my work and invited me to her ‘Becoming’ book tour at the Barclays Center,” Guo said.
Guo took this experience with her to create Girl Pride International.
“I transformed Crossing Borders into what is now GPI, a global girls empowerment organization that has positively impacted over 70,000 people around the world,” she said.
Since then, GPI has accumulated hundreds of members.
GPI members span 12 countries and have collectively raised $70,000, Guo said.
In the past six years, GPI has initiated various projects and programs internationally.
For example, the nonprofit instituted an Ambassadors Scholarship Program in Kenya, Guo said. The program provides tuition assistance to over 100 impoverished students.
Additionally, the organization has constructed classroom and maternity houses in Samburu in north-central Kenya, spearheaded the “Fighting Hunger for Education” campaign and mitigated school dropout rates through legal intervention, Guo said.
“Of all these projects, the most memorable one is the prevention of the forced child marriage of Lisano, an 11-year-old girl in Kenya,” Gup said.
Guo said GPI was about to prevent the marriage “through tireless and collaborative work with a local teacher through fund-raising and legal intervention, and the ultimate establishment of a GPI Ambassadors Scholarship Program in Samburu.”
After this experience, Guo was honored as a Nassau County Female Trailblazer by County Executive Bruce Blakeman for Women’s History Month.
At the ceremony, she delivered a speech sharing Lisano’s story.
“My proudest GPI moment is when Lisano won the legal battle and attained her freedom,” she said.
For all of these achievements, Guo said she has been recognized by the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award from President Biden and President George H.W. Bush Daily Point of Light Award.
Guo spoke at the Harvard Global Women’s Empowerment Expo and was profiled by Stroll and Cove Living Magazines as well.
“I have also been featured by Disney, The Kelly Clarkson Show, NBC News, KBC and nominated for Teen Vogue 21 Under 21,” Guo said.
Most recently, Guo was interviewed by Clarkson in celebration of International Day of the Girl in October.
Guo said she is interested in pursuing a number of different career paths that allow her to fight for human rights.
“I would like to pursue a career as a public interest and corporate lawyer, professor in law or political science, woman in government, humanitarian and author, or at the intersection of such,” she said.
Guo said she is especially inspired by the Town of Oyster Bay’s Marie Colvin, who was a foreign war correspondent for the London Times at the time of her death.
Colvin was assassinated by the Syrian Assad regime in 2012, and Guo proposed, drafted and helped pass a county law to rename a local street in her honor, Guo said.
Guo said she continued her commitment to public service this past summer in Washington, D.C., as a Yale Women in Government Fellow, where she interned on Capitol Hill in the Senate.
“My humanitarianism and women’s empowerment work is something that will continue with me for my entire life,” she said.
Guo’s nonprofit will continue to work to support girls’ education internationally.
“GPI’s long-term goal is to continue to empower young girls from marginalized communities to become leaders in their own communities and change the lives of others around them,” she said.