Smith College Student Establishes Educational Nonprofit in Her Native Cameroon

Glory Divine Yougang Tahon ’26 founded Educate Young Girls (EYG) out of a profound sense of gratitude for the opportunities she has had—and a determination to ensure that women and girls in her home country of Cameroon have access to the same possibilities. 

EYG works to increase school enrollment and retention for girls in Cameroon through reproductive health education, vocational training, and pathways to financial independence. Together, these efforts aim to break cycles of poverty and expand opportunity for girls and young women across the country.

Growing up in a family of five children in Bafoussam, in the western region of Cameroon, Tahon won a school scholarship that not only paid for her schooling, but also provided the family with extra funds to educate her younger brothers. Just as important, she had parents who championed her ambitions. Her mother, a teacher, and her father, a pharmaceutical company employee, both supported her desire for an education. 

Other girls she knew didn’t have that same kind of support system. Some of her friends—while still preteens—were thrust into early adulthood, forced to marry much older men and forever denied an education. Tahon realized that this could easily have been her path. 

When it came time to apply for college—something no one in her family had done before—Tahon participated in a program designed to help students learn about life in America, and the myriad schools and locations available to them. “I love small towns and forests, because they remind me of home, and that is what the Northampton area seemed like,” says Tahon. “The more I did research on Smith, the more I loved it.”

During her first year at Smith, Tahon attended an information session about the Jill Ker Conway Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, where students were invited to discuss how to turn their values and passions into entrepreneurial projects. “Reflecting on my experiences, the emotion I mostly felt was gratitude, and that became a motivator,” Tahon says.

Turning that motivation into action, Tahon established a GoFundMe and raised $300 to purchase and send notebooks and books on reproductive health to her hometown. She put together a team of people in Cameroon, who ended up not only distributing the books to young girls, but also leading them in discussions about some of the issues they faced. The initiative was so successful that Tahon coordinated a second event at the beginning of 2023. That summer, while doing an internship in Cameroon, Tahon held a third event. “When I actually saw the impact it had,” she says, “I decided to create a nonprofit.” 

At the start of her sophomore year, Tahon participated in the Conway Center’s Hatchery incubation program for entrepreneurs, where she refined her business plan for what would eventually become Educate Young Girls. She competed in the 2024 Co-Innovate for Joy Challenge with her partner, Britney Sandra Akwan ’27, under the name JOY Incubator for Women. They earned an honorable mention along with $10,000 in funding. Working with several non-Smith students, she also won two Projects for Peace prizes for another $20,000. Tahon registered EYG as a nonprofit in Cameroon and partnered with the Hack Foundation for fiscal sponsorship, so they could take care of administrative and financial responsibilities.

As the business end took shape, Tahon turned to the Smith alum network to ask questions, gain advice, and secure mentors. She met some 50 alums in person during Reunion 2024 and scheduled Zoom meetings with 100 others throughout the year. “It was intense!” she laughs. The alums jumped at the chance to help, providing support with marketing, grant writing, and program development. Today, more than half of EYG’s nine advisory board members are Smith alums. Tahon loved the fact that each alum she contacted enthusiastically responded to her request for information. 

All of EYG’s programs are now up and running, the latest one being vocational training. In summer 2024, Tahon launched a pilot program for 16 teenage mothers, offering instruction on farming, poultry agriculture, and crop farming, as well as reproductive health education. Each of the teens received a microgrant to start a business of their own, with EYG support. In August 2025, EYG was awarded a three-year grant that enabled the vocational training program to expand into a full-time initiative serving far more teenage mothers.

This early success has inspired Tahon to think big. “EYG is a youth-led, women-led movement,” she says. “It started locally, but I can see it going global.” She also emphasizes that EYG is not introducing radical new ideas, but rather is reinforcing a fundamental truth: Education changes lives, and boys and girls should have equal access to it.

Although EYG employs several paid staff members, the organization relies heavily on volunteers—more than 100 young people ages 15 to 25, along with nearly 700 mentors guiding them. Tahon stays involved via Zoom, but, mostly, she trusts her core team to fulfill the organization’s work. EYG services three regions in Cameroon so far, and is currently training 25 volunteers to send into the two regions of the country that have been in ongoing political crisis, which Tahon understands is risky, but crucial to EYG’s mission. 

Following graduation in May, Tahon, a computer science and psychology double major, hopes to stay in the United States and pursue consulting jobs for small businesses and nonprofits, or perhaps go into marketing. She is also considering an MBA program in a few years. For now, she knows it’s not possible to focus exclusively on EYG. “I want a job now for financial stability, experience, and networking,” she says. “I think trying to go full-time now with EYG is like eating the seeds that you’re supposed to plant.”