How Caroline King Uses Her Education to Make a Difference

Caroline King is a numbers person. She studied business and finance, but it’s statistics that have motivated her. There’s one stat that always sticks in her mind – being part of the 7% of the world’s population that has earned a college degree. She heard that number through her involvement with the Circle of Sisterhood when she was a sophomore and thought about how her Mom is part of the 93% without their degrees because she didn’t have the opportunity to attend college. She came to the United States from El Salvador when she was a teenager, and Caroline knows that the sacrifices her Mom made are the reason she continued her education.

Because of that she was active in CofS as an undergraduate when she raised awareness on her campus by sharing her story, as well as helped organize fundraisers that contribute to the CofS mission of removing barriers to education for girls and women. She wants to use her education to make a difference for others so when she found out her efforts helped to fully fund a school build in Malawi, Africa she was overcome with emotions.

By her junior year, she became a CofS Campus Ambassador and then Panhellenic invited CofS Founder Ginny Carroll to talk to over 200 women in the community. There was so much excitement for CofS that women were sitting on the floor and on the stairs of the Grand Courtroom on campus to attend this event. Caroline remembers the feeling she had when women approached her for weeks after that event to tell her that what she said that day impacted them. She shared why she is involved and they said that 7% was stuck in their minds.

“As a woman who has studied business and finance, which is a male-dominated industry, I feel strongly that I need to use my education in a way that betters the lives of other people,” Caroline said.

She continues to use the statistics she learned to educate other women because she knows the facts speak for themselves. She’s always ready to share that:

• Two-thirds of the 792 million illiterate adults in the world are female.
• Not even 7% of the world’s population is college educated.
• 70% of out of school youth in the world are girls.
• More girls have been killed in the last 50 years, precisely because they were girls (sex selective abortion), than men were killed in all the wars of the twentieth century.

You can feel the energy when Caroline speaks about CofS, especially when she includes the research in the conversation. She knows that you can’t fight the facts, which is why she continues to make an impact with CofS.

We hope you will join Caroline, the board of trustees, staff, volunteers, and donors in supporting CofS, especially during these difficult times, in donating on CofS’ Day of Giving on September 30th. You can donate here. As CofS shares more stories like Caroline’s leading up to its Day of Giving, be sure to join the conversation by tagging CofS on Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter, as well as use #BeHerHero to come together as we work to open doors to opportunity through education.