Polly Dolan '89

Polly has been living and working alongside the people of Eastern and Southern Africa to help create and foster opportunities since 1996.

After working in community development and environmental conservation in Uganda and Tanzania for the humanitarian organization CARE for six years, she became an independent consultant with a focus in the health, education, and vulnerable children programming areas.

In 2008 during her 10th year in Tanzania, driven by her desire to help highly vulnerable Tanzanian girls gain a quality education to escape poverty and exploitation, Polly founded Secondary Education for Girls' Advancement (SEGA) in Morogoro, Tanzania. Supported by Nurturing Minds in Africa (a U.S.-based non-profit organization Polly founded with her sister), SEGA empowers young women who are impoverished, marginalized, and at-risk of becoming involved in exploitative forms of child labor.

To do this SEGA has three main programs: a secondary boarding school with over 270 students (90% on full scholarship); a scholarship program which provides support for SEGA graduates to continue their education after high school; and a mentoring program where SEGA graduates reach 300 girls in their community per year, providing awareness, knowledge and skills.

Polly majored in Sociology at UVM and went on to earn a Master's degree in international administration (international development) from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont. She has recently returned to the U.S., and now resides in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, with her husband, John, and daughter, Martha.