This essay is one of 35 selected by a panel of judges for “Ambitions Interrupted,” a series from The GroundTruth Project and YouthVoices, its storytelling platform.
Name: Ruth Nyambe
Age: 18
Dream job: Journalist
City, Country: Lusaka, Zambia
Current job/school: Applying to college
Challenge: Financial difficulties
As a young lady, I have a lot of dreams, but the most important one is to study mass communication. I realized my interest in journalism as a young child, seeing journalists on television. I have come to appreciate the role the media plays in society, that of educating, entertaining and informing.
I want to be among the people who keep the masses well informed about what is going on around them. I know that an accurate story leads to a well-informed nation and world at large. Through my career, I want to reveal hidden truths of national interest, and be the voice for members of the public, regardless of their status in society.
In my community, a lot of girls have given up on their dreams for various reasons, like early marriages and peer pressure. This makes me want to stand out with my education and later inspire young people. I successfully completed my high school with the help of Children International Zambia, which provided for my academic needs.
I now dream of studying mass communication at the University of Zambia, but my mother has advised me to study water engineering, so I have applied to Zambia’s best college dealing with agriculture, the Natural Resources Development College. I was called in for interviews, which went well, but my chances of getting a scholarship here in Zambia are very low.
Tuition at the Natural Resources Development College is 5,735 Zambian kwacha (about $1,100) per semester. I live in a single-parent household and my mother does not work, making it difficult to afford my tertiary education, as she is still struggling to provide for my older and younger siblings’ academic needs. This has made it difficult for me to apply to higher learning institutions, despite having good qualifications.
I am in a challenging situation. The chance to study at a higher learning institution would be a life-changing opportunity. I want to be a living testimony that dreams can come true. Through mass communication, I want to be the change I wish to see in my community, country and world.
This story was originally submitted to YouthVoices, a platform powered by The GroundTruth Project that encourages young people to share stories about the issues affecting their generation. Submit your own essays and answer new questions here, or learn more about global youth unemployment with this interactive map.