Previous Lute Leaders Stories

TACOMA, Wash. - This is the third part of a series highlighting Lute student-athletes, coaches, and administrators who are advocates and leaders in the community. Today's installment features Pacific Lutheran University women's swimming student-athlete Kiyomi Kishaba. Beyond her involvement in athletics, Kishaba is an editor of the PLU Mast student newspaper and works in the PLU athletic communications office.

Simply put, Kishaba is fighting for the underdog.

An English writing and communications major, the San Diego, California native is using her strength as a writer to advocate for change with internships with two non-profit organizations: the Borgen Project and Mary's Pence.

Kishaba connected with the Borgen Project in April. Stated succinctly on their homepage, the Borgen Project declares "We fight for the underdog." More specifically the non-profit organization strives to fight poverty believing the United States, as one of the most powerful nations on Earth, should be doing more to address global poverty and make it a bigger focus of US foreign policy.

"I liked their mission. When COVID-19 started happening a lot of people were focusing on the United States and how it effects the US but the Borgen Project has a campaign trying to get the US to give global aid around the world because the virus isn't going to go away until we eradicate it around the globe. I thought that was important and I figured I would help. I would use my strength as a writer to help make their message be heard," said Kishaba.

Kishaba's first assignment for the Borgen Project was writing about sanitation in Namibia. It was a topic Kishaba chose in part due to her familiarity with the south African nation after writing a study away piece about teammate Rebecca Perkins' experience in Namibia.  

A six-time All-Northwest Conference honoree in the pool, Kishaba is tasked with writing about two themes: celebrity advocacy and good news. Her stories include writing about climate activist Greta Thunberg's campaign with UNICEF along with the progress being made in the fight against gender discrimination in Uganda.

Kishaba's internship at the Borgen Project led her to her second internship at Mary's Pence.

"The second internship that I'm doing is one of the non-profits that I interviewed and wrote an article about for the Borgen Project. I did an alumni project about someone who works there, so that's how I decided to write about them and then I thought, 'hey they probably have an internship for the summer.'"

Mary's Pence provides two avenues to provide funding and holistic support to women working for justice in Central America, Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The first is Mary's Pence Grants which provides grants to women's organizations working for social change within the community. The other is ESPERA which partners with women's organizations in Central America and Mexico to start community lending pools and providing ongoing coaching to foster women's empowerment and economic well-being.

Kishaba's internship at Mary's Pence involves writing articles on the businesses that have been provided loans through ESPERA and helping identify other grant sources for those businesses.

Through both internships, Kishaba has developed a passion for working in the non-profit sector, something she envisions continuing after graduating next spring.

"It's important to remember that we're privileged and I think just recognizing the fact that college is a privilege and we should use our education and what we're learning to help people that don't have the same privilege. I also think just recognizing what your strengths are and being able to use those strengths to help non-profits or other people in your community is important."

While using her strengths as a writer to help others less fortune, Kishaba stresses that everyone can do their part to fight for the underdog and advocate to eliminate poverty and women's inequality in society.  

"The basic thing is donating. All the interns have a fundraising campaign to raise money for the organization. And then another thing that's really important is contacting members of congress. On the Borgen Project website there's a link to the different topics they're trying to get congress to look at. You can click on one of those topics and there's a pre-written email that you can send to members of congress. Those are the two most important things and then just educating yourself. Reading the Borgen Project articles and just being aware of global issues and not just what's going on in the US."