“There is no separating my life from my work,” says Sarah Nininger ’13, B.A. Integrated Educational Studies. Her friends back in the U.S. are getting married, having families, buying homes. She’s trying to figure out how incorporate a plot of land that came with her building in Uganda into a community gardening project.

Sarah Nininger ’13 gets a hug at Action in Africa’s Center in Nakuwadde.

At 27, she’s the president of Action in Africa and this year’s Chapman University Schweitzer Rising Star award recipient. Action in Africa is a non-profit organization and Nininger lives and works on-site at The Center in Nakuwadde, Uganda. Action in Africa operates on about $150,000 a year. Judging from photos on the Action in Africa website, much of Nininger’s pay comes in the form of hugs, smiles, empowered women and happy kids.

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