Former Howell Resident Heads Up Job Effort in West AfricaFormer Howell Resident Heads Up Job Effort in West Africa

4/21/14 - A one-time Howell resident is heading up an effort to improve the lives of students after they graduate from schools in West Africa. Marcy Hessling O’Neil is an Assistant Professor in Michigan State University’s Anthropology Department and helping coordinate a program in the nation of Benin called Youth Entrepreneurs Partners, or YEP. O’Neil, who spent several years living in downtown Howell while she earned her degree, received a Fulbright award to do ethnographic research in Benin on higher education and the family. She says that in her time there, she found that young people graduate from school only to face an average of 3 years unemployment. In speaking to those students, O’Neil tells WHMI that she heard stories very familiar to those she heard from college grads while working at a hair salon in Howell. She says that what makes the situation in Benin so unique is the fact that those students had an extraordinary level of responsibility because they were chosen as the person most likely to succeed with their families diverting all of their resources towards their education. When they didn't find gainful employment upon graduation, many families deemed them as a bad investment. That situation prompted her and others to create the YEP program so they could use practical training to those students on how to start a small business as opposed to working for someone else. The group has received some seed funding from the Fulbright Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund, and were shortlisted by the United Nations General Envoy on Youth as a potential partner to work on issues of youth unemployment globally. They’ve begun an online campaign to raise $7,500, which O’Neil says is needed to pay the instructors in Benin a living wage, keeping them on staff and helping provide stability to their efforts. (JK)