Sisters in Progress: Looking Back at the Women We Were Becoming

University taught me many things. It taught me how to write research papers, meet deadlines and think critically. But it also taught me something I never expected: while education can open doors, it does not guarantee the life you dream of. A degree alone cannot teach you resilience after rejection, the courage to pursue your ideas, or the confidence to believe in yourself when no one else does.

Alongside my education, I realized I needed something more. I needed honest conversations with people who were asking the same questions I was. I needed young women who could dream beyond graduation, who could challenge my thinking, stretch my imagination, and remind me that there were countless paths to success. I needed people who would celebrate my wins, question my excuses, hold me accountable when I settled for less, and encourage me to keep going when the future felt uncertain.

Most of all, I needed a circle where we could be honest about our fears without being judged, where we could exchange ideas instead of competing, and where every conversation left us believing that our dreams were possible.

That longing became an idea. That idea became Sisters in Progress—a mentorship circle built on the simple belief that no young woman should have to navigate her journey of becoming alone.

And looking back today, after we all wrote our final papers in April, I realize that Sisters in Progress gave us so much more than a place to meet. It gave us a place to dream. It gave us the courage to speak our ideas out loud, to challenge one another, to celebrate every small victory and to keep believing in ourselves even when opportunities seemed out of reach.

We left university with more than academic qualifications. We left with friendships that became family, confidence that could not be examined in a lecture hall and a community that reminded us we never had to navigate our journey alone. We learned that success is also about becoming the kind of women who lift one another as we rise.

Today, we are scattered across different places, each of us chasing the future we once talked about during those meetings. Life has undoubtedly taken us in different directions, but I often find myself thinking about the young women who sat in that circle with me.

I wonder where your dreams have taken you.

I hope you got those internships we spent hours searching and applying for. I hope the business ideas we debated after lectures have begun to blossom. I hope someone saw your potential the way we always saw it. And wherever your dreams have taken you, I hope you still carry a little piece of Sisters in Progress with you.

I hope one day I get to read your stories too. There is something incredibly special about seeing your voice in the world.

And to Winnie, I hope you know how much it meant to me to see you here on World Pulse. I remember sharing stories from this community with you, never imagining that one day I would be reading yours too. In that moment, I realized that impact isn't always loud. Sometimes it begins with one conversation, one shared story, and one woman finding the courage to tell her own.

It was never about asking you to follow my path. It was about helping one another discover our own voices. And to see those voices now being shared with women across the world is one of the greatest gifts Sisters in Progress has given me.

I think of Faith Gift Wangari, whose passion for empowering young women led us to collaborate and start Wings of Dignity together. What began as conversations about purpose grew into action, and today, seeing her share her stories, initiatives, and advocacy on World Pulse fills me with so much pride. It reminds me that collaboration doesn't end when one project begins; it creates room for even more women to lead, inspire and build alongside one another.

As I close this chapter, there are a few things I hope you never forget.

Wherever your journey has taken you, I hope you have remained curious. I hope you have kept learning, not just from books, but from people, from failure, from courage and from every opportunity that challenged you to grow.

I hope you are still the woman who chooses kindness over comparison, collaboration over competition, and purpose over popularity.

And if life has blessed you with opportunities, I hope you have reached back to hold another young woman's hand, just as someone once held yours. Because that is how change continues. One woman opens a door and another walks through it.

Perhaps years from now, we will meet again. We will laugh about the dreams that once seemed impossible and we will marvel at how far life has brought us. Until then, know this: I will always be grateful that our paths crossed and I will always believe that the world is a better place because each of you is in it.

Sisters in Progress began as a conversation between a few young women on a university campus. Today, I see it as something much greater. It became a place where friendships turned into sisterhood, ideas turned into initiatives, encouragement turned into courage and collaboration created ripples far beyond the walls where we first met. If our story proves anything, it is that when women choose to believe in one another, they don't just change each other's lives—they create possibilities for generations of women they may never even meet.