Brilliant… But Broke | Guilian Asongtia

At Open Dreams, we meet students every year who score distinctions in nearly every subject.

Bright. Driven. Focused.

The kind of students who would thrive at any top university in the world.

But behind the grades, there’s often a different story:

No textbooks.
No laptop or smartphone.
One phone shared between siblings.
No internet access.
Struggling to pay national exam fees — never mind international application fees.

These students lead class discussions.

They revise with others. They sit in the front row.

Then after school, they head to farms…

To “chantiers”…

To market stalls and roadside corners, hawking to help their families survive.

Some still manage five A grades.

Some “only” get 20 or 22 points — but those numbers barely reflect their brilliance.

Because when your brilliance is buried under survival, even showing up takes courage.

This is exactly why I do the work I do at Open Dreams.

Because talent is everywhere — but opportunity isn’t.

And Open Dreams exists to level the playing field…

To give hope and access to the students who are brilliant — but broke.

Yes, we need more scholarships.

But we also need more people who will see potential before the world notices it.

Because sometimes, the most gifted student in the room is the one no one paid attention to.

Not because she wasn’t smart —

but because poverty buried her voice beneath the weight of survival.

Looking forward to the Open Dreams Summer Academy 2025 in the days ahead.

Guilian Asongtia, Littoral Regional Program Coordinator and Tech Co-Lead, Open Dreams

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