Access to Education is this Volunteer’s Mission
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Claire Wang. Read her story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
Claire Wang grew up hearing that her beloved grandmother had to leave school in the second grade to join the workforce in China. That’s how she knew how lucky she was to have the opportunity to get an education. However, Claire also knew that, like her grandmother, many girls across the world weren’t as lucky as she was. They face tremendous obstacles to accessing proper education. She soon learned that over 119 million girls worldwide lack access to education, and she wanted to do something about it. Little did she know at the time, but Claire was about to spearhead a movement that would grow into a global organization.
In the ninth grade, Claire and her best friend Vivian co-founded Future Female Scholars, an organization that connects underserved girls worldwide with passionate tutors who believe in the transformative power of education. Claire works diligently to recruit and coordinate volunteer tutors and match them with mentors. She also spends significant time managing partnerships and sponsorships, organizing outreach initiatives, and growing Future Female Scholars’ social media presence to over 146,000 followers on Instagram. Her work has been so successful that FFS has built partnerships with Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, Krispy Kreme, and TrueLeap. As a result of Claire’s dedication, which includes spending 35 to 40 hours per month on her volunteer work, over 10,000 girls receive free one-on-one tutoring. She has built a network of 2,000 verified volunteer tutors, providing students with academic support they may not otherwise have access to.
Currently a high school senior, Claire is planning on heading to college, where she’ll study chemistry with a minor in education. She hopes to continue growing the organization while pursuing her degree. While FFS has already expanded on a global scale, Claire hopes to go even bigger. She dreams of partnering with a major organization like the United Nations to make it clear that women’s education needs to be emphasized in other countries, not just in the United States. Looking at everything Claire has accomplished thus far, there’s no doubt she’ll reach her goals someday.
What inspired you to get started with this initiative?
Growing up, my grandmother lived at my house, so it was really nice to just hear her stories. She grew up in a place called Hunan, China, where most of the people are farmers. She told me that she had many dreams of becoming a teacher. Unfortunately, she had to drop out of school in the second grade to join the workforce with the other villagers in her town.
I had been going to kindergarten at that point, and I was always complaining about going to school. But this new perspective shed light on how much of a privilege education is, and this really inspired me. In ninth grade, I started Future Female Scholars with my friend Vivian Lu because we realized that so many other girls like my grandmother are in the same situation where they have to sacrifice education just to live, and that shouldn’t be the case. Education and your own well-being should go hand in hand.
What inspires you to volunteer?
I just like talking to people and meeting new people. Every time I volunteer, it’s a great experience because you’re introducing yourself to new people. It’s a new experience every time. You’re not always going to meet the same people with the same backstory. Through volunteering, I’ve learned some of my greatest lessons. And these lessons have carried forward whether I’m interacting with teachers, professors, or friends.
Tell us about your volunteer role with Future Female Scholars.
I’m the co-founder and co-CEO with my friend Vivian. Day-to-day, it mostly looks like me registering tutors. We have about 2,000 registered, verified tutors right now in over 70 countries, which is significant. It’s usually me pairing up students with tutors, or sometimes the students will naturally find tutors themselves on our website. We have a place on our website where people can find tutors who list their contact information. I also manage our Instagram, which has over 145,000 followers. It’s pretty wild to see how something we started almost two years ago has grown on a global scale.
What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?
This sounds cliché, but meeting students from each country is so cool. Hopping on a Zoom call with someone from Morocco or France. It’s so cool to see the cultural differences, and we bond over struggles. We both have to take the SAT or do college applications, stuff like that. Even though we’re in different parts of the world, we’re still connected by education and our love for learning.
What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?
I’ve learned resilience. Starting in 2024, we were really small. We had about 300 followers on Instagram, and we only had about 10 tutors sign up on our website. It was really sad at first because I really wanted to reach as many people as possible. But I decided just to keep going. I worked with my co-founder every day throughout the summer and throughout the school year. Even if we had tests or quizzes, we worked through holidays. Consistency is the real solution to everything. Every day we just focus on improving something differently.
Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?
You can really step out of your comfort zone. It’s really easy to say you have a passion for something, but not take any action. Anyone can have a passion for, let’s say, chemistry, but if you don’t actually take initiative to work in a lab or do some research, there’s nothing really tangible that’s produced out of it. I think young people these days really need to have initiative. There needs to be some actual human interaction, and I think the tutorial aspect has worked for most of our Future Female Scholars.
Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?
Go to your local community center, church, or library. Find out what your school offers. I started volunteering at the food bank and the library. Through these constant volunteering opportunities that I did, I realized I wanted to do something more. I wanted to do something where I could lead my own cause. If you do something that personally connects to you, that really makes a much better impact, and you yourself are going to be constantly motivated.
What do you want people to learn from your story?
I would like people to learn that it’s always possible, even if you start and you might not have as many volunteers as you’d like. Just keep going and try to improve something every day. If you improve something every day and stay consistent, things will eventually work out for you. Two years ago we had tutored only 100 girls, but now we’ve tutored over 10,000 girls across the world. I think young people can do that just through the power of social media and staying consistent.
Do you want to make a difference in your community like Claire? Find local volunteer opportunities.
