Schendy Kernizan grew up outside a small village in Haiti, where he spent his childhood worrying about his family’s safety and his future. Unlike many kids in rural Haiti, Schendy had the opportunity to go to school. His education opened doors of opportunity, allowing Schendy to dream beyond the unpredictable and often violent world he walked through every day. It gave him hope for a better future.
But that wasn’t the case for many kids like Schendy, who started school too late or not at all. They would never have the same opportunities in life that he did, simply because they were not given the chance to try. That reality drove Schendy to work harder than ever to prove he wasn’t wasting his blessings.
Now, he’s the co-director of MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab, where he develops cutting-edge materials that defy gravity and the limits of possibility. But Schendy has never stopped thinking about the thousands of kids in Haiti who don’t have the opportunity to go to school.
In Lasserre, a small village outside Port-au-Prince, few parents could afford to send their kids to public school, where enrollment costs about 20 US dollars. Those who could afford it were forced to send their children to the nearest school, four miles away. As a result, 60% of kids in Lasserre didn’t go to school.
In 2015, Schendy decided to take matters into his own hands. With the help of his family and a local pastor, he built Lasserre’s Own Hands, the village’s first and only school. For the first time, these kids have the chance to get an education–to dream, to hope.
The school became so successful that they realized they needed to expand, hire more teachers, and support more students. That’s when Schendy started a GoFundMe.
Within a few months, the school’s GoFundMe raised over $34,000 to help the children of Lasserre. Ultimately, Schendy hopes to raise $50,000-enough to support the school for an entire year and reach even more children.
To the pastor in Lasserre, the promise of the school is clear: “Within every kid here in this school, there is a little Schendy in spirit who can develop to be like him and reach their potential with an education.”