The obstacles could have paralyzed you: You were here. The problem was there. You were young, just college students. The problem had roots centuries old. There were just two of you; hundreds of thousands needed help.
None of that stopped you.
Deeply concerned for Iraqi refugees fleeing to Jordan, you sought to help. Conversations with a professor refined your thinking: Focus on those whose futures were particularly bleak. Bring to the problem not only your knowledge and skills, but also your experience as athletes.
The idea you landed on: a summer sports camp for at-risk girls.
It was a massive project, but you pulled it off. And that might have been that. You might have moved on with your lives, focusing on what became successful investing careers.
That was not that.
Recognizing that the immense problem was only growing, you transformed your one-off summer initiative into a permanent, year-round program. You raised money. Created a nonprofit.
Today, Reclaim Childhood serves Iraqi girls, refugees from elsewhere and at-risk Jordanians. It teaches not only soccer, basketball and skateboarding, but also leadership. It trains women to coach girls, building a sustainable female athletics community in a place where women have been, historically, unable even to access fields or gyms.
You grew Reclaim Childhood into a thriving, admired NGO that challenges assumptions about what girls can or should do. Though you wisely built it to stand on its own, with professional staff and deep local connections, there has always been plenty of purple among its directors, funders and volunteers. There is purple also among its summer interns—including in the class that sits before us today.
In recognition of your distinguished achievement as humanitarians, Williams College is proud to honor you both with its Bicentennial Medal.