Hong Kong 30 Under 30 2015

Founder, ShuleOnline

Lani Tao set up nonprofit ShuleOnline, a web-based platform that gives students in developing nations with limited resources access to volunteer teachers, in 2015. The idea came after going to Kenya to volunteer, and learning that the organization had withdrawn its volunteers from local schools in the country.

“Knowing that the schools depended on this organization for support, I thought there had to be a more sustainable model than the current ‘voluntourism’ method.”

Tao quit her job in the corporate sector to set up the organization. Within the first month, ShuleOnline had provided electricity and internet for 200 students at one of its four partner schools in Kenya, as well as set up a lunch program. “It was a sense of accomplishment that no other job could have given me.”

Her very first job? In high school, Tao delivered prescriptions for a pharmacy.

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