2019 Rhode Islanders of the Year
We honor inspiring people who moved the state forward in 2019.
Hilina Ajakaiye founded the R.I.S.E. Women’s Leadership Conference. Photography by Alex Gagne.
Hilina Ajakaiye
Hilina Ajakaiye arrived in the United States with her two sisters on a one-way flight from Ethiopia when she was twelve years old. At the time, Hilina’s father was attending law school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while her mother stayed behind in Ethiopia raising her two brothers. She had to learn English and find her way in a new country, while also navigating everyday challenges faced by young women.
As an adult, Hilina reflects on her experiences growing up and gives back to various local organizations that help young women. She most recently founded the R.I.S.E. Women’s Leadership Conference in Providence that connected 781 attendees this past September across ages, professions and diverse backgrounds to discuss how to eliminate gender, pay and socioeconomic gaps, while also investing in young women. Her involvement, along with her husband’s help with marketing, strategy, social media and sales, is all in addition to her day job working on Stop and Shop’s brand strategy and marketing team supporting 450 stores across New England.
“There are a lot of women who are in the space of doing phenomenal things for women, but we still had room for a conference that would have a bit more diversity, not even in a literal sense, but more in terms of ages and socioeconomic backgrounds,” she says.
Hilina’s father, now a criminal justice professor and lawyer, cared for Hilina and her sisters while going to law school, working security at night and driving cabs to support his family. Ajakaiye’s upbringing with a hard-working father inspired her to dedicate herself to philanthropic efforts.
She met her future husband, Lanre Ajakaiye, while she was an undergrad at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, and he was a student at University of Rhode Island; the two courted for years over letters. When they eventually married, they settled in Providence, had two children and dedicated themselves to philanthropy and volunteering as a family.
Hilina is also a Big Sister through Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Rhode Island, while Lanre dedicates time to Year Up and, most recently, the creation of a travel basketball program for Providence that fuses financial literacy and career awareness.
The couple divides and conquers with various organizations while also volunteering together. “I got a little girl who was thirteen [at the time],” Hilina says, adding that she’s a board member of Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Rhode Island. “She just turned eighteen and is getting ready to graduate high school. I am there to help her, but she really helps me think about the state of the girl and how there are thousands of girls like her.”
“She’s a part of the family,” says Lanre.
That’s why part of the R.I.S.E. Women’s Leadership Conference is dedicated to young women, who both attend and serve on a panel. The conference’s four pillars of discussion focus on financial literacy, health and wellness, entrepreneurship and business leadership, and they feature women who are corporate movers and shakers and political pundits, as well as one panel made up of male leaders called “Men Who Get It.”
“If you have all the stakeholders at the table, change is going to happen,” Hilina says. “I didn’t want to eliminate men, so at 4 a.m. one day, I came up with the phrase, ‘Men Who Get It.’ What it means is we want to have a conversation.”
The Young Women’s Circle is constructed of young girls from area high schools who share their experiences growing up in this day and age, so the women leaders attending the conference can understand how to help them.
It’s like passing the torch to a whole new generation who can do big things and be inspired by those who came before them.
“After coming to America, I never walked into a room and said I am the only anything,” Hilina says. “I’ve always walked into a room with the empowerment that my mom and dad gave me, and that feeling that you and I can do anything.” –J.C.
From left: Amanda Rosenberger, Christian Lucero, professor Christopher Ratcliffe, Samantha Gorzocoski and Christopher Sherman at Bryant University. Photography by Alex Gagne.
Project Playhouse
in 2015, project playhouse began as a service learning project in a Bryant University management class. Its purpose was to benefit Rosemary’s Wish Kids recipients, a wish-granting nonprofit for children dealing with a critical illness. With much success and interest from students, Project Playhouse grew into a much larger organization and has since given sixteen sick kiddos the playhouses of their dreams.
Once the students at Bryant receive more information about each child from Rosemary’s Wish Kids, local career and technical schools — including Coventry Regional Career and Technical Center, Providence Career and Technical Academy and more — start constructing the playhouses. Each one is skillfully crafted and then bedecked with toys, games, decor and more. Not only is each playhouse suited to best fit the child’s interests, but it also allows kids to escape reality in a sanctuary of their own.
It’s not just the children who find joy from these playhouses.
“Project Playhouse has affected me in so many ways and is just such an honorable experience,” says Amanda Rosenberger, a junior at Bryant University. “We are able to set objectives, execute our plans and make a world of a difference to these children. Not only is it a learning experience, it’s also a rewarding feeling to know you are helping others.”
Four more children will be presented with playhouses in April on the Bryant University campus. –S.L.
