Yemi, top center, with the class from the Federal Government Girls College in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, who participated in the SEED project.
	Benedicta receiving her certificate of participation from then-SEED NGA coordinator, Valerie Edozien

My name is Yemi Shoroye, and I am a DP Sales Manager for WesternGeco, based in Lagos, Nigeria. I am also one of the co-leaders of the Eureka SIG on SEED Volunteering, a grassroots network for Schlumberger employee-volunteers, which I invite you to join.

Recently, our team began a discussion about gender diversity in the context of SEED. I am of the opinion that while SEED is focused on helping developing countries achieve much-needed technological growth through youth development and involvement in science, it is often the case that the priority of educating girls is very low compared to boys in these countries. My own experience tells me that such beliefs result from a mistake in both reason and perception that girls don't need education as much as boys do.

A few years ago, I worked on a SEED project in an all-female secondary school in Nigeria. One of the students, a girl named Benedicta, truly shined as an outstanding performer in the project. Up to that point, her father had been nonchalant about her education because she was a girl. However, the SEED project “exposed” Benedicta's intelligence and dramatically changed her father's views towards her potential, and he became more interested in her education. Benedicta later became a source of inspiration to her community by becoming a role model, especially to other young girls. Ultimately, she gained admission to study medicine in college, where she is studying today.

There are a lot of “Benedictas” in the developing world, whom I would like to believe SEED can help to discover. SEED, and really each of us as volunteers, can help change parental and social views about educating girls. By developing more girls as educational role models, we can make a positive impact on our communities and lay the foundation for a greater future for women, for our world and for Schlumberger.