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Kakenya Ntaiya was born in a rural village in southern Kenya, one of eight children. When she was 5 years old, her parents arranged an engagement to a local boy. She was to be circumcised before becoming a teenager to signify the end of her education and the start of married life. It seemed that a future of working on her rural family farm was set. But she made a deal with her father: She would agree to be circumcised only if he would allow her to finish high school. He agreed. She then negotiated with the village elders to do what no girl had done before: leave her village to go to college in the United States. Kakenya is now finishing her Ph.D. in education. Kakenya was the first youth adviser to the United Nations Population Fund, and she has traveled around the world to speak on the importance of educating girls, particularly as a means to fight the practices of female genital mutilation and child marriage. And, she started the only primary school for girls in her home region. The school has 95 girls in g