{"id":17025,"date":"2019-10-31T16:58:38","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T20:58:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=17025"},"modified":"2020-05-01T10:51:44","modified_gmt":"2020-05-01T14:51:44","slug":"ten-most-amara-ifeji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/ten-most-amara-ifeji\/","title":{"rendered":"Amara Ifeji"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; width: 100%; height: 450px;\" src=\"\/\/e.issuu.com\/embed.html?backgroundColor=%23d2d2d2&amp;backgroundColorFullscreen=%23d2d2d2&amp;d=nov19_flipbook_final&amp;hideIssuuLogo=true&amp;pageNumber=42&amp;u=portlandmagazine\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nNovember 2019<\/p>\n<h1 class=\"p4\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">3.\u00a0<span class=\"s1\"><b>Brain Storm<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI want to inspire young girls like myself.\u201d<strong>\u2014Amara Ifeji<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">By Rebecca Garibaldi<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-16948\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/nov19_10Most-_3-Amara-273x300.jpg\" alt=\"nov19_10Most _3 Amara\" width=\"273\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/nov19_10Most-_3-Amara-273x300.jpg 273w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/nov19_10Most-_3-Amara-200x220.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/nov19_10Most-_3-Amara-319x350.jpg 319w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/nov19_10Most-_3-Amara.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 273px) 100vw, 273px\" \/>A<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"s1\"><strong>mara Ifeji<\/strong>, 17, has shown through consistent hard work and passion you can accomplish quite a bit. From her victory at the\u00a0<strong>International Science and Engineering Fair<\/strong>\u00a0(ISEF), to multiple awards for her research projects on methods of water purification in the\u00a0<strong>STEM\u00a0<\/strong>(Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) 4-year academy program at Bangor High School, to starting a diversity union within her school, Amara is just beginning to make the world a better place.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">What sparked this motivation at such a young age? Her family. In 1996 her grandparents immigrated from Nigeria to Maryland. Her grandfather worked as a security guard and her grandmother as a CNA. \u201cThey held these minimum-paying jobs for over 20 years while trying to support their household, which consisted of nearly fifteen people at one point. They took care of my cousins and me while our parents went to school. I want to show my grandparents that everything they went through was not in vain. I want to make them proud.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Amara is paying it forward to those most in need. \u201cDiversification and tackling current environmental issues are important to me. I want to inspire young girls like myself to make a difference by educating and motivating them.\u201d Upon moving to Bangor in 2011 for her mother\u2019s pharmaceutical career, Amara began to realize the limited diversity in both the town and schools. \u201cI started a minority student union at Bangor High School. This is not just a safe haven for minorities but also for Caucasians. I created this union for all to become more educated on racial diversity. I want to create a safer space.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Her award-winning project in the category of plant sciences at the 2019 ISEF is on water purification through the use of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. \u201c[According to the World Health Organization] there are 785 million people worldwide who don\u2019t have access to clean drinking water, and that\u2019s not just third-world countries. Bangor High School had three water fountains shut down while I was attending because of contaminated drinking water.\u201d Amara\u2019s goal is for all to have access to clean and safe drinking water. \u201cI hope for the preservation of the environment so future generations can enjoy and experience the same things I did growing up, such as seeing Cadillac Mountain for the first time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">So what\u2019s next? \u201cI\u2019m currently in the process of applying to colleges.\u201d At the top of her list is\u00a0<strong>Brown University<\/strong>. \u201cI plan on majoring in chemical or environmental engineering with a minor or double major in environmental sustainability or equity. I want to include social justice, racial groups, and different ethnicities in my education as well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This young Maine scientist is already working to make the world a better place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[955,120],"tags":[531],"class_list":["post-17025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-most-intriguing-mainers","category-the-women-of-maine","tag-amara-ifeji"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17025"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18545,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17025\/revisions\/18545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}