Founder of Building Education “Well behaved women seldom make history.”
About
Wendy Shew was born and raised in San Francisco, California as first generation with immigrant parents from China. At an early age, she experienced the tragedy of losing her mother at 8 years old, which has become her catalyst for 25 years in social impact work.She experienced firsthand how education can ultimately become the equalizer in anyone’s life.She studied aviation, learned to fly single engine prop planes, and worked in the international aviation business as a jet engine specialist. After volunteering in October 2014 at a girl’s orphanage in India, she quit her job 4 months later, sold all her things, and left the country to travel the world all across Asia, Europe, and Africa for six years. She spent one year in Thailand, teaching in a rural village and weeks in forest monasteries meditating with monks. Wendy traveled all through India as a solo female traveler, mentoring young girls. Her favorite experience in India was a visit to Vrindavan, where she went to volunteer at a widows' mission in Hindu temples, where currently over 6,000 widows in India reside. She coincidentally met the Dalai Lama and made her way to Tanzania where she found herself worshiping with hundreds of children from a local hospital on Easter.When an earthquake hit Nepal on April 25, 2015, and damaged 9,000 schools, Wendy traveled to Nepal three months after to support in earthquake disaster relief. From there, she founded Building Education, a nonprofit organization that serves to build safe schools in developing countries to end the cycle of extreme poverty.Building Education’s motto is 1,000 schools and 1,000,000 lives.In collaboration with local governments, schools and partner organizations we aim to transform rural villages into prosperous, dignified communities.We believe in a world where every child has an equal opportunity to education.Wendy is also an ultramarathon runner, mountain trekker who has trekked mountains all over the world including the Himalayas, fashion enthusiast, model, and title holder of The Global Citizen’s Collective, Miss Nepal 2021.A quote she lives by: “Well behaved women seldom make history.” - Eleanor Roosevelt