CLTL Featured Student
Korotoumou (Katy) Ballo '21

My name is Korotoumou (Katy) Ballo and I am from the Ivory Coast, West Africa but lived in the Bronx, NYC. I am a sophomore at Skidmore, majoring in International Affairs and Management & Business. I am passionate about fighting for girls’ rights in developing countries, especially on early child marriage and quality of education.

I have served as the Club correspondent for the African Heritage Awareness Club, and I have conducted independent research with the Opportunity Program on the misrepresentation of Islam in the Western World.

Last summer, I interned with a nonprofit in Uganda called Literate Earth Project (LEP). As an ambassador for the LEP, I worked on high-impact projects, such as donating books to different schools, organizing and implementing weekly workshops with teachers and educating students in the importance of literature.

Currently, I am working as the Career Ambassador in the Career Development Center, and I am conducting independent research on how the political and economic relationship with Ivory Coast and France can be a potential reason why the country is still undeveloped.

I am also serving as the President of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) on campus. The Muslim Student Association is a religious and diversity club that gives a safe platform to Muslim students to express themselves and talk about the mainstream ideology of Islam we often do not see when people talk about representations of Islam. At MSA we value all types of religious diversity and background by creating events that represent the diversity in Islam.

My goal is to one day become the voice of the unheard girls who grew up in places where their education rights are taken away with the belief that they should be restricted to the home.