Microgrants Resource the Vision & Ideas of Young Leaders

The Women’s Foundation of Minnesota (WFM) announced direct investment in its sixth cohort of Innovators – 15 young women and gender-expansive people whose leadership, ideas, and solutions advance key recommendations in the Young Women’s Initiative of Minnesota (YWI MN) Blueprint for Action. Each Innovator was awarded a $2,500 grant, representing a total investment of $37,500.

“Young women and gender-expansive people are leading today. Early investments in their leadership seed lasting change and open the door to additional investment, which can be transformational,” said LaCora Bradford Kesti, vice president of community impact. “Their vision and ideas are showing the way to a future that is brighter and more just for all Minnesotans.”

Innovators convene quarterly for technical support and leadership development. Each Innovator pairs with a professional mentor of their choosing and meets three times a year for professional coaching and development. Since the inception of the Innovators program in 2018, the Women’s Foundation has made 139 grants totaling to $347,500 to 111 young women and gender-expansive youth, ages 16 to 24. In this cohort, two Innovators are returning to continue developing their projects for social change.

Launched in 2016, the Young Women’s Initiative of Minnesota is a multi-year, multi-million-dollar investment and public-private partnership with the Governor’s Office of the State of Minnesota to achieve equity in opportunities with and for young women of color, American Indian young women, young women from Greater Minnesota, LGBTQ+ youth, and young women with disabilities. Since 2016, the Women’s Foundation has made $3.6 million in grants through the Young Women’s Initiative of Minnesota.

Meet the Innovators:

Fatima Abdi
(she/her)
Woodbury, MN
Blueprint recommendations:
#4: Build Gender and Community-oriented Financial Literacy and Life Skills
#5: Enhance career pathways, opportunities, and pay in STEM
#16: Increase Mental Health Support

As a Somali American with a love of esthetics, Fatima cares deeply about skin care and her community. She hopes to become an AP esthetician and own her own skin care company. She aspires to always be a kind person. Fatima looks forward to being a mother one day and hopefully retiring young. If she can help just one person or give someone the confidence to be proud of themself, she will have reached her life goal.

Michelle Abdon
(she/her)
Maple Grove, MN
Blueprint recommendations:
#16: Increase Mental Health Support
#3: Reframe Harmful Narratives
#9: Develop Young Women Leaders

As an artist and mental health advocate, Michelle believes healing isn’t always prescriptive and that recovery is a community-driven effort. Using the arts, she hopes to extend more peer-led healing spaces. She has served as a board member in the National Alliance for Mental Illness Multicultural Advisory Board and Young Adult Expert Advisory Group. She is also a 2020-21 FINNOVATION Fellowship alum.

Asianay Chappell
(she/her)
Minneapolis, MN
Blueprint recommendations:
#5: Enhance Career Pathways
#4: Build Gender and Community-Oriented
#17: Prevent Violence through Healthy Relationships

Asianay plans to share the difference between financial freedom and financial stability with under-resourced youth. She plans to teach and inspire people to budget without seeing it as a chore. Asianay wants to create a space where people can freely express themselves, while learning how to network and about its benefits, while having fun. She would like to show that anybody, especially an underdog, can succeed if they use their personal traits and overlooked skills, following up with persistence to ensure success. She intends to motivate people to be more in touch with emotions and unafraid to show them.

Ramaya Ellis-Debrah
(she/her)
Eagan, MN
Blueprint recommendations:
#4: Build Gender and Community-oriented Financial Literacy and Life Skills
#3: Reframe Harmful Narratives
#9: Develop Young Women Leaders

Ramaya lives in Eagan and loves to participate in social events around her community in Minnesota, whether it is going around supporting small Black-owned businesses or going to balls surrounding black entrepreneurs. She is deeply committed to creating opportunities and resources for young Black kids to succeed in business and finance. Her project will provide resources and support to help young Black entrepreneurs develop the skills and knowledge they need to start and grow a successful business. Ramaya believes her project has the potential to make a real difference in the lives of young Black individuals.

Halima Hamud
(she/her)
Minneapolis, MN
Blueprint recommendations:
#5: Enhance career pathways, opportunities, and pay in STEM
#3: Reframe Harmful Narratives
#9: Develop Young Women Leaders

Halima is a master’s student in development practice (MDP) at the Humphrey School, where she is expanding her research and skills in economic development and health equity for women. She believes that improving access to resources and opportunities is crucial for creating equitable communities. As the founder of Circle of Excellence, she will use the funds to amplify and create a space for highly skilled refugee and immigrant women’s success stories, raising awareness about the global issue of brain drain in the US.

Weslyn Harmon
(she/her)
Coon Rapids, MN
Blueprint recommendations:
#4: Build Gender and Community-oriented Financial Literacy and Life Skills
#18: Increase Access to Childcare
#3: Reframe Harmful Narratives

Weslyn plans on teaching an SIS-stainable Fashion sewing program to introduce participants to creative expression in sewing and design, the importance of sustainability, and prepare them for leadership roles. Now that she can design and sew her own clothing, Weslyn has begun to use clothing as a statement to express herself and her ideals. Weslyn’s vision is to support young women in Minnesota to become empowered in their fashion as a stance of activism against fast fashion and stand in global solidarity with women exploited by fast fashion retailers.

Lucero Idrovo Cuesta
(she/her)
Columbia Heights, MN
Blueprint recommendations:
#5: Enhance Career Pathways, Opportunities, and Pay in STEM
#4: Build Gender and Community-oriented Financial Literacy and Life Skills
#9: Develop Young Women Leaders

Lucero plans to graduate from high school, and her goals include becoming an ultrasound tech, and giving back to her family. She also hopes to obtain her license to be a lash tech. Inspirations in her life are her family members, who have always pushed her to be the best side of herself and have always supported her ideas.

Isha Kapoor
(she/her)
Rochester, MN
Blueprint recommendations:
#5: Enhance career pathways, opportunities, and pay in STEM
#3: Reframe Harmful Narratives
#9: Develop Young Women Leaders

Isha is a junior at Mayo High School in Rochester, MN. She has been pursuing cancer research in the laboratory of a Mayo Clinic hematologist for the past two years. Isha has won numerous awards for her research, and she has been invited to present her work at the International Science and Engineering Fair for the past two years. An advocate for diversity and equity initiatives, Isha serves as the co-chair of her school’s equity team and is an officer on the Board of Minnesota Junior Academy of Science. Isha’s grant will focus on promoting leadership and engagement in STEM among young girls of color in her school district.

Sanaa Keval
(she/her)
Bloomington, MN
Blueprint recommendations:
#15: Increase access to Women’s Health
#16: Increase Mental Health Support

A senior at Kennedy High School in Bloomington, Sanaa created an initiative through her school’s female empowerment group, Women of the Future (WOTF), to get high-quality menstrual products and dispensers available to students for free in bathrooms around the school. In a high school community that is majority low-income and people of color, WOTF strongly believes that equal access to quality period products should be a right, not a privilege.

Natasha Loya
(she/her)
Minneapolis, MN
Blueprint recommendations:
#4: Build Gender and Community-oriented Financial Literacy and Life Skills
#18: Increase Access to Childcare

An Afro Latina, born and raised in South Minneapolis, Natasha serves as Bridgemakers’ Changemakers program director, and co-leads the Youthprise policy fellowship program. As a 2023 Civic Spring coach. Natasha has used her experiences and personal hardships to cultivate community, mentor BIPOC youth within the Twin Cities, and provide resources for young people to become civically engaged.

Sofia-Rose Nagberi
(she/her)
St. Paul, MN
Blueprint recommendations:
#4: Build Gender and Community-oriented Financial Literacy and Life Skills
#15: Increase access to Women’s Health Care
#16: Increase Mental Health Support

Sofia-Rose is a 1st and 2nd generation, born and raised in Minnesota, queer Nigerian artist. Her project, the Financial Empowerment Initiative for BIPOC LGBTQ+ Communities (FEI) educates BIPOC and LGBTQ+ youth on financial literacy and entrepreneurship. As a queer woman, Sofia-Rose knows the issues affecting her community. She seeks to help combat the challenges and provide these young people with the support they need to make a successful transition into adulthood.

Ayomide Ojebuoboh
(she/her)
Minneapolis, MN
Blueprint recommendations:
#13: Ensure Community Spaces and Conversations

Ayomide is a creative from North Carolina currently pursuing an MD and PhD in epidemiology. With her roots in music, filmmaking, video editing and writing, she is passionate about bringing art, healing, and medicine to community spaces. She will continue building the Community Health Equity Fellowship (CHEF), a grassroots multidisciplinary collective in the Twin Cities, pursuing radical health activism with the 3 C’s: community healing, creativity, and collective learning.

Nancy Thor
(she/her)
Minneapolis, MN
Blueprint recommendation:
#9: Develop Young Women Leaders

Nancy is a Hmong artist located in the Twin Cities, who goes by the stage name of NewSONG, or Nkauj Tshiab in Hmong. Born and raised in Minnesota, Nancy is a singer, songwriter, and dancer, who also does some acting. Nancy is mainly known for her K-pop dance covers, and is influenced by artists like BiBi, IU, and Hmong American singer Ka Lia Universe. Over the years, she has written two debut songs for Minnesota Hmong American girl groups, Cua Tshiab and INDIGO. Nancy released her first official music video, “We Are Young” (WAY), in November 2022.

Dan-neya Yancey
(she/her)
Minneapolis, MN
Blueprint recommendations:
#5: Enhance career pathways, opportunities, and pay in STEM
#17: Prevent Violence through Healthy Relationships
#3: Reframe Harmful Narratives
#9: Develop Young Women Leaders

Dan-neya is a public health professional and aspires to make a positive impact. Her project, Her Joy is Found Here, represents that her joy is about servant-leadership, learning, and growth opportunities, and addressing community needs how and where she sees opportunity.

Lay Lay Zan
(she/her)
St. Paul, MN
Blueprint recommendation:
#9: Develop Young Women Leaders
#13: Ensure Community Spaces and Conversations

Lay Lay is a board member of the Karen Football Association (KFA) the official governing body of the Karen women’s and men’s national soccer teams. The Karen people are one of many ethnic groups from Myanmar in Southeast Asia. Gender equity is a core mission, and she plans to develop a dynamic program that promotes young women leadership for Karen girls that incorporate soccer, culture, and leadership.