User:Chebesi Daphne/sandbox

Blaise Buma
Blaise Buma born in 1988 is a Cameroonian Investment Professional, Philanthropist and Entrepreneur. He Co-Founded Open Dreams, an organisation that helps high achieving students from low-income backgrounds in Cameroon, South Africa, Bhutan and the Philippines to apply for scholarships to study abroad. He has won so many awards as an individual, which include: Goldman Sachs Scholarship for Excellence Award (2015), Spring term scholar at Washington and Lee University (2012), Johnson Opportunity Grant (2011) and Schwarzman Scholars program (2016).

Life and Education
Blaise Buma grew up in Bamenda in the Northwest Region of Cameroon. He graduated high school from Government Bilingual High school Bamenda with Distinction in the Advanced Level. He moved to the USA in 2011 to attend Washington and Lee University on a full scholarship. He did a one-year study abroad program at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Economics graduating in 2015. He was awarded the Schwarzman Scholarship program in 2016 to pursue a Masters in Management science, Economics and Business at Tsinghua University in Beijing China. He will be joining the Harvard Business School in fall 2019 to pursue an MBA.

Not long ago, Blaise was one of those kids in his home town of Cameroon who was struggling to make ends meet. He received help from a lady after graduation from high school to apply for scholarships to study abroad. Two years after this meeting, Blaise was awarded a fully funded scholarship to study at Washington and Lee University. Blaise, in an effort to pay this forward, co-founded Open Dreams in 2015.

Open Dreams under the motto “Equalizing access to educational opportunities” has been able to make the dreams of may High achieving but low-income students come true. Through the Open Dreams Scholars Program and some other Parallel programs, they have been able to see to it that students are able to go to university all over the World. Open Dreams scholars can be found in Ghana, Canada, the United States, Russia, Rwanda, South Africa, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Botswana. Open Dream is also a member of the HALI Access Network, an association of non-profit organizations in Africa that work with high-achieving, low-income (HALI) students to access international higher education opportunities.

Work
In the summer of 2012, Blaise interned with Deutsche Bank AG in London, working as an analyst on the equity structuring and cash sales desk and presenting investment theses for companies that included AIG and Avon. He also analyzed the Greek debt crisis and suggested possible restructuring scenarios that could return the Greek government to solvency. After graduation, he worked with Goldman Sachs Group in New York in the summer of 2015 as a sales and trading intern on the Index Volatility Trading Desk and the U.S. Collateralized Loan Obligation Structuring Desk. He stayed on with the company and served as Goldman Sachs Campus Ambassador, helping the firm source talent at colleges and universities. He currently works an a Global Analyst with Crossboundary LLC, an investment firm committed to unlocking the power of capital to make a strong return while creating a lasting difference in frontier markets.

Achievements an Awards
As an undergraduate, Blaise raised $6,000 to attend the summit of One Young World, a UK-based not-for-profit that encourages young people from around the world to gather and debate, formulate and share innovative solutions for pressing international issues after which he became a one Young World Ambassador. In October 2009, Blaise was named a Howard Hughes Fellow and recipient of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Grant. In 2011, he was a recipient of the Johnson Opportunity Grant from Washington and Lee University. In 2015, he was awarded the Goldman Sachs Scholarship for Excellence Award for embodying the Goldman Sachs Business Principles. He was also made an Econet Fellow upon completion of the Schwarzman Scholars Program.