Teen works to educate girls in India




GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE—Isabel Davison, below right, and above with her team of young volunteers.

GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE—Isabel Davison, below right, and above with her team of young volunteers.

Lucky is the person who finds their passion early in life, and in that regard, fortune has smiled on Isabel Davison.

The 14-year-old resident of Agoura Hills has dedicated herself to furthering the education of girls in India. Isabel recently organized a 5K run that raised more than $1,000, enough to pay a year’s tuition for four Indian girls. She’s also written a book about the struggle young women face in obtaining an education in that country.

Isabel is doing charity work through the Mona Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports women’s education around the world.

“I connected to the foundation through my parents, who met the co-founders of the Los Angeles chapter (of the organization). I went to one of their meetings where a speaker was a woman working at one of the Mona Foundation schools in India,” she said. “I was so blown away by how enlightened she was and how she described the change her school experience had on her. I thought it was beautiful.”

Courtesy photos

Courtesy photos

Drawing on an interest in writing she’s had since she was younger, Isabel interviewed members of the L.A. chapter and turned their experiences into a novel. The 37,000-word work is one of fiction but it’s based in fact.

It hasn’t been published yet, but she’s working on changing that. She’s also adapting the story into a screenplay for a feature film.

“This was my first time doing such a large project. I’ve written poetry. I’ve won some scholastic awards, but I’ve never written something so large. It was a scary undertaking. I was only 13 at the time,” Isabel said. “I thought it would be more impactful if it was short and to the point. It took me about four months to write.”

After completing the novel, she decided she wanted to do more.

She started organizing the 5K earlier his month to raise money to pay tuition for girls in India. She fell short of her goal of $5,000 but was pleased with the participation. She and 12 others, including friends from La Reina High School, where she’s a ninth-grader, and girls she didn’t know from Agoura High School, volunteered to run a circuit near Medea Creek Park.

“There was a registration fee for the 5K, and then we just asked people to sponsor us for the whole run. Considering the pandemic and people’s (financial) situations right now, I wanted to leave it open-ended,” Isabel said. “I thought doing a run was better than just raising money because it can bring a spirit of camaraderie, and it raises a bit more awareness. I felt like more people would see it versus us just asking for money.”

She’s got her eyes on more fundraisers but isn’t sure what that will look like. Right now she’s focused on school.

In August, Isabel will be moving to Michigan to study writing at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, a boarding school.

As for where she gets her drive to help others, Isabel credits her family, which includes her parents, Lauren and Paul, and younger sister, Juliet.

“My grandmothers were immigrants. They didn’t get much of a chance for proper education. I see how powerful it is and how much it can change someone. My parents have always made me very aware of the world. I think they nudged me into it,” she said. “All through my life they gave me an awareness of what’s going on around me. I think that helped me realize I have some privilege and I can do something with that.”

Follow Ian Bradley on Twitter @Ian_ reports.