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Amanda Dye’s azure eyes blaze with the passion and conviction of the true believer.

While others may talk about social causes and the need for change, the 23-year-old Nonprofit Leadership major at William Jewell College is taking action.

“I’ve always cared deeply about kids, and I’ve wanted to teach since I was a little girl,” Dye says. “Seeing the needs of children in Africa really redefined who I am as a person and what I see as my purpose in life.”

With single-minded determination, Dye has embarked on a life-changing journey that resulted in the recent establishment of the Energy of Hope orphanage in Zambia, South Africa.

Following a 2006 trip to Zambia with a nonprofit agency, Dye began to focus on the cause that would become the driving force of her existence. In January of 2007, she packed a backpack and headed back to the South African nation, where 16.5 percent of the population has HIV or AIDS.

“It was a leap of faith,” Dye concedes. “I had some ideas, but I really didn’t know how things would work out.”

She stayed at a missionary camp to make contacts and to gain a better understanding of the country and its people. Over a period of several months, she met with government agencies, found a sturdy brick house to lease and hired staff members. On April 13, 2007, Energy of Hope was officially registered and began receiving children. The orphanage is housed in a modest, three-bedroom structure with an adjacent soccer field and playground surrounded by a concrete wall. Currently, 18 children call the orphanage home.

“Young mothers have pleaded with me to allow them to stay there with their children,” Dye says. “I’m trying to get a square mile of farmland to accommodate a village with several homes. The mothers would live with their own children and also help to care for other orphaned children.”

Long-term plans call for the women and older children to grow food for themselves and others in the larger community.

Dye, who transferred to William Jewell last year, believes that the college’s new Nonprofit Leadership major will help hone her organizational, community-building and fundraising skills. She was recruited to Jewell after Dr. Gregg Whittaker, associate professor of business administration, read about her story in a local newspaper and was convinced she’d be a good fit for the college’s new major.

“I feel very much at home here,” Dye says of her Jewell experience. “Everyone has a heart for service learning.”

Dr. Kevin Prine, professor of business administration and chair of the department of business and leadership at William Jewell, agrees that Dye personifies the kind of commitment that leaders at the college are seeking to attract for the program.

“Amanda is the kind of champion of change that we want to continue to attract and develop through the Nonprofit Leadership major,” Prine says. “The intellectual horsepower that has been applied to issues like ‘how do we make more money’ or ‘how do we argue this point of law more effectively’ also needs to be applied to issues like hunger, poverty, war and disease.

“A great thing that is happening is that more and more smart people are applying their efforts to these problems, especially among those who are now high school and college age. Jewell’s Nonprofit Leadership program is perfectly situated to contribute significantly toward making this difference in the world.”

For more information about Energy of Hope, visit www.energyofhope.org