USC PhD student Zuriel Oduwole is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Her doctorate program is organizational change and leadership, which ties into her non-profit organization, Dream Up Speak Up Stand Up, which advocates for female education. Oduwole has met with world leaders like President David Granger of Guyana and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Eygpt, and championed the importance of being educated, leading to end child marriage in Mozambique in 2018.
In an interview with Annenberg Media, Oduwole reflected on her advocacy journey and shared advice for students.
How do you balance going to school and your advocacy work?
“I started off first with filmmaking by entering the school competition here in the U.S., and I had to go to Ghana to shoot some scenes for that documentary. And that kind of eventually led to my education advocacy work.”
“While I was there, I first noticed a lot of kids out of school during regular school hours. So I’d be shooting at 10 in the morning, 12 noon, and I would see kids on the streets trying to sell things, both boys and girls. Most of them looked like they were my age, a couple who were probably a bit older, some who were younger. But you know, it’s one thing when you hear about that issue of out of school children here in the U.S., because we’re kind of a bit far removed from it, but to actually see it with your own eyes is a completely different story.”
Oduwole has been homeschooled for most of her life. After her documentary project, at the age of 10, she formally launched her education project, Dream Up Speak Up Stand Up.
With her education project, Oduwole has traveled to 23 countries, spoken to over 53,800 youth, and sat with over 36 presidents or prime ministers to talk about policy in the area of education and youth. She said she has improved at managing her time with all her travels.
How do you bring your own perspective into your filmmaking work?
“Filmmaking is storytelling honestly, and storytelling is kind of a part of effective communications. And effective communications is about one party speaking at another party receiving that message. And so when you come back to storytelling, it’s really about telling a compelling story that impels action.”
“I remember back in 2018, I was 16 years old at the time. As part of my education advocacy work, I tried to figure out what’s preventing kids from going to school, especially girls in some countries. I found out that Mozambique had one of the highest rates of girl marriage on the African continent, according to UNESCO that year, 2018. And so I found out that girls as young as 14, as young as 12, 11, were being taken out of schools and sold off into marriage. And so as a 16 year old, I was like, how can that even happen? So I started brainstorming, figuring out, what can I do to try and solve this problem.”
“So I went to Mozambique to sit down with the country’s president, President Filipe Nyusi and we had a candid conversation. I talked to him about the work that I do in education advocacy, running filmmaking workshops for youth, unemployed young women and peace mediation initiatives and basically just my generic global development work.
“I asked him if he was aware of this work that I was doing. And he said I know the work that you do. And then I asked him a very simple question. I asked him, ‘Wouldn’t you want all the girls in Mozambique to do even better things than what I’m doing?’ And he was quiet because, how do you say no to a serious question like that? I said, ‘It starts with them going to school.’”
“I went back home to L.A. and we kind of continued communicating with some back channel communications, partnering with his office, first lady’s office, and a couple other voices, got involved, and then 15 months after that first meeting, Mozambique formally outlawed girl marriage, after decades of decades of practice. I think the stats were about 1.1 million school-age girls, their lives changed because that was no longer allowable practice in the country.”
“That was a physical example of telling a compelling story to impel action. And I allow that same thing to translate into my filmmaking.”
Oduwole shared that the three main reasons she does filmmaking is to tell untold stories, tell positive stories and bring awareness to different issues.
What is your filmmaking process, and walk us through some of your obstacles?
“A typical filmmaker space, you got to work on locations. You got to get your storyboard down, figure out the kind of content you can shoot, your permission to shoot. I’ve done films that lasted like two years in terms of gathering footage, editing, putting it all together. I’ve also had one where I literally shot it all in one day.”
“It all comes back down to, ‘So what’s the story I want to tell?’ as a filmmaker, especially when I teach my filmmaking workshops. Now, I think [I have] taught over 590 students in eight countries. So then here in the U.S. and Mexico, Rwanda, Ethiopia, the message I always tell them is the same, as filmmakers, we have a responsibility. Filmmaking is a very powerful tool that you can literally use to tell any story. And so there’s a responsibility to make sure we’re telling stories in the right way, to make sure that if we’re telling someone else’s story, especially, we’re telling it in a way that really puts them in the best light. But then also, as a filmmaker, it’s to make sure that we’re using our voices for good.”
You started your advocacy work and filmmaking at such a young age — how were you actually accomplishing these goals at your age?
“I think anybody can do this, because I’m anybody.”
“I met my first head of state when I was nine years old. It was President Jerry Rawlings of Ghana. I realized that you can advocate at the school level, advocate with the parents, but there’s also work that can be done on the policy level.”
“How it started was, I literally wrote letters, analog as that may be, I wrote letters to the presidential offices of the different presidents and prime ministers to meet with. So I’d sit down, explain who I am, what I wanted to get out of the meeting, why I wanted to meet with them, and then I would send those letters to their offices. And I remember at the beginning, it would take quite a bit of time for them to respond. ‘Who’s this nine-year-old girl, 10-year-old girl, wanting to sit down with me?’ And so it did take a while. I think the first head of state I met with, it took like, six-to-eight weeks for him to get back to me. And then, even then, he’s like, if you’re serious about it, come to Ghana to speak with me.”
“But it’s a thing, when you build a track record, people understand what you do. They know who you are. They take you seriously, and that kind of helps.”
In 2018 she was personally invited by Egypt President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to a discussion regarding peace in the region, emphasizing the importance of youth voices and how to make their voices heard.
“I definitely think that anybody can do this, because, like I said, I was nine, I was anybody. I still am anybody. And so I feel like if you have, a really important message, you’re really driven and focused on what you want to do, because you have to love what you do, and you have to be driven right, otherwise, those small barriers and hurdles that may come up and slow you down or deter you completely.”
“Finding what you enjoy doing, finding what you’re passionate about, especially as it comes to creating change in the world, I definitely think that anybody can do what I’m doing, and my hope is that anybody would do it and even do greater things than what I’m doing.”
How has your family support affected your accomplishments?
“They’ve all been incredibly supportive. I mean, growing up is also how my parents raised us. So I’m the oldest of four kids. I have three younger siblings, and they always kind of taught us, if you see something and you think you can make a difference or add your voice to help somebody else, then you should definitely do that.”
“If you ask them, I’m not sure what I’m doing now is exactly what they had in mind, but they kind of always raised us up with that mentality.”
“I remember having that discussion then about wanting to start my project. I first started with the documentary project, and then after that translated to the Education Advocacy Project. I’m sure it took a bit of convincing, but they were very much, like, if you take this seriously, something you really, really want to do, then we’ll support you. And so they have been incredibly supportive. When I was much, much younger, we’d have to go find sponsors and stuff like that for flights and hotels and stuff like that, because I have to remind people, I am still a student, still on a student’s budget.”
“Kindness is the rent that we pay for our time here on Earth. My mom would tell us time is the only currency that you spend where you never know the balance. They’ve really instilled in us from day one, don’t wait, right? “Don’t say 20 years from now, I’ll try to do something 30 years from now, I’ll try to do something you can start today, because no one ever knows how much time they have.”
Do you still keep in contact with the person who nominated you?
“So I actually don’t know everyone who nominated me. I know Professor Maddox at USC nominated me. There was apparently another U.S. university who nominated me, and a Senator who nominated me.”
Dr. Anthony Maddox, is a professor of clinical education at the Rossier School of Education at USC. Maddox teaches in the online Master of Arts in Teaching program, MAT online.
What advice do you have to others that want to get involved in their local or global community?
“My advice is that dreaming is so powerful.”
“I met with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf when I was 11 years old, and she said something really profound. She said, ‘If your dreams don’t scare you, then they’re not big enough.’”
“We could talk about our dreams and aspirations — it doesn’t cost us anything. So I feel like first and foremost, it’s important to have dreams, and to dream big, scary dreams. Dreams that are not only going to have a positive impact on your life, your family’s life, but also that can have an impact in your community, on your country, and maybe even the whole world.”