Bady Balde\u2019s path to Harvard University began at age 4, on a six-mile trip along a dusty, rural African road. Alone.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the reason he\u2019s a good runner.<\/p>\n
Balde recalled trying to catch two older, long-legged classmates on their way to and from school, three miles away. \u201cI couldn\u2019t keep up with them,\u201d he said. For the boys, school was a lucky privilege that was afforded only a few.<\/p>\n
Today, the only running Balde does is for fun, and the only people he chases are his two rambunctious young sons.<\/p>\n
This spring, Balde, a one-time dishwasher with Harvard\u2019s Dining Services<\/a>, will graduate from the Harvard Kennedy School<\/a> (HKS), thanks to help from Harvard\u2019s Bridge Program<\/a>. He will leave with a diploma in his hand and a determination in his heart to help change his homeland, where a lack of education often has devastating repercussions.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are parents who can\u2019t read prescriptions for their children,\u201d said Balde. \u201cThat is something that I lived with. I know exactly what happens to kids who grow up in a family where the parents don\u2019t know how to read and write.\u201d<\/p>\n In a remote village in his native Guinea, Balde, one of 13 children from his father\u2019s two marriages, was tapped as the son who should continue in school rather than help the family and harvest cotton. The result was an 11-hour day away from home. The decision carried a deep emotional burden for the young Balde, who understood that others would have to work the fields in his place, and that his parents would have to sacrifice for his school supplies.<\/p>\n Then, when he was 12, his mother, dying from complications with her ninth pregnancy, uttered a last wish. \u201cShe told me, \u2018The only thing I want is for you to complete school.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n Determined to become a doctor and combat maternal mortality, Balde excelled in school, ultimately passing a rigorous national college entrance exam. Lacking money for medical school, he studied economics and general management in the nation\u2019s capital, Conakry. After graduating, he returned to remote areas, showing women how to better manage their micro businesses and market their handicrafts and textiles, as part of his work with the international development agency GTZ<\/a>.<\/p>\n Next, he landed a job at the nation\u2019s central bank, but instead of helping him explore economics on a macro level, the position opened his eyes to a system rife with ignorance.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw people making decisions that would have terrible consequences for the country, but they had no clue,\u201d said Balde, who realized he had to \u201clearn how to get things right.\u201d<\/p>\n He soon found himself on another long road in search of education.<\/p>\n With his wife Jennifer, a Connecticut native he met while she was working in Guinea, Balde arrived in Boston in 2005 to look for a job, and made his way to the famous campus across the river. Harvard was always his ultimate destination, and despite his education and professional experience, he resolved to take any job available. With support from Susan Simon, human resources manager for Harvard\u2019s Dining Services, who helped him complete his application, he started working in a dining hall part time.<\/p>\n Simon directed Balde to the Harvard Bridge Program, where he met the director, Carol Kolenik, who told him, \u201cWe can help you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe was such a quick study. I just have never seen anyone fly like this,\u201d said Kolenik, adding that Balde\u2019s success \u201cmeans so much to all the Bridge students and staff, and exemplifies our mission of giving people the opportunity to move up and change their lives and be who they deserve to be.\u201d<\/p>\n Under Kolenik\u2019s guidance, Balde enrolled in intensive English classes and met daily with Bridge volunteer tutor Jessica Engelman, a Web editor at HKS. Through the program, he also worked with career development counselor Carla Fontaine, who helped him with his resume and his search for full-time employment. Eventually, the Bridge connected him with the Harvard University Employees Credit Union<\/a>, where he worked as a teller for two years. With a 9-to-5 work schedule at the credit union, he was able to take math and statistics classes at the Harvard Extension School<\/a> to help him prepare for a graduate degree.<\/p>\n One day, while surfing the Internet, he pulled up the Web site for Harvard\u2019s Kennedy School and was drawn to the M.P.A.\/ID program, leading to a master\u2019s degree in public administration in international development.<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t stop going back to that Web site,\u201d he said. \u201cIt seemed so tailored to what I wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n What Balde wants to do is to reduce illiteracy in African nations, particularly his native Guinea. Through his work, he hopes to improve school attendance rates for girls, who often never attend school or leave their studies early to marry and never return.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there are great opportunities available today,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are so many ways that we can use technology and resources now that were not available before. There are so many easy changes we can make that can improve the lives of so many.\u201d<\/p>\n But perhaps his greatest accomplishment, he said, will be to act as a role model to young children in his country, to show them what they can achieve.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, the most important part is not actually what I will do myself, but what I will be able to show other kids like me \u2014 that Harvard is possible,\u201d said Balde. He recently decided to return to his village directly after graduation, to teach math and explore the best ways to address some the area\u2019s most pressing issues. \u201cI believe in leading by example.\u201d<\/p>\n Balde is certain his story would have inspired someone else, too. \u201cIf I could tell my mother that I am graduating from Harvard,\u201d he said, \u201cI am sure she would be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n