LOUISE FERREIRA
BRAZIL, 19
Project: Prep Change
Cofounder: João Sanches
Basic Human Needs: Education, Safety
In August 2018 Louise left her home in Santana de Parnaíba, Brazil to attend an international boarding school in Switzerland. To her surprise, she was the only Latin American student when she arrived. She knew her fellow Latin American youth had the same potential, but lacked awareness and access to educational opportunities. In February 2019 Louise founded Prep Change to make quality, international education accessible to Latinx youth, and empower students to address inequality in Latin America. Prep Change provides a 7-month personalized curriculum and online mentorship to Latin American students who want to experience school abroad. Prep Change Mentors are students who have already studied abroad. They guide mentees through the application process and welcome them into a community of global citizens. Prep Change also leads an intensive bootcamp and promotes opportunities via their blog and social media. Prep Change has directly impacted 30,000+ young people in 35 Brazilian cities, Peru, Colombia and Portugal, and plans to double the number of students they mentor in 2021. Louise was named one of 2019’s Inspiring Brazilians in their 20s by McKinsey & Company, and a 2020 Luff Peace Fellow from the Watson Semester Accelerator in Boulder, Colorado. In 2021 Prep Change is partnering with BMI Global to launch an unprecedented global exchange fair about international education, which is expected to engage 1,000+ attendees, and have solidified partnerships with global institutions including InspiraSonho and Latin America Leadership Academy to streamline the application process for Prep Change students. Louise hopes to create an international high school in Brazil, so Latin American students can open the door to students from abroad to their home continent.