As the first Honduran to study at Duke Kunshan University, Kamila Mejia Ley will not let a distance of 14,000 kilometers stop her from helping children back home.
Even without venturing into the fraught world of politics — a future she is mulling but wary of given the likely strain on her family — the first-year undergraduate has already done much to improve the lives of young people in Honduras.
Witnessing the decline in educational opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic, she founded Luceros, a charity dedicated to transforming the learning experiences of gifted but underprivileged Honduran children. And she often thinks about what else she can do for her home country.
“It’s a great place to live, but a lot of the work that I’ve done is because of the conditions in my country,” said Mejia Ley, who started volunteering aged 12.
“It’s a very underprivileged country, it’s full of life and culture and warmth, but there is a lot that needs to get better.”
Alongside her Honduran identity is a sense of global citizenship developed from spending half her childhood in China, Nicaragua and the United States.
She was grateful for the opportunity to connect with her Asian ancestry — her great grandparents were Chinese — when she moved with her family to the southern city of Guangzhou, where she first started volunteering by fundraising for children with heart problems.
The donations she helped pull in paid for two heart operations, a success that ignited in her an enduring passion to serve those less fortunate.
“It’s a lot of effort but once you’re working with your friends and the people around you and everyone is committed to making something happen, this energy just comes out naturally,” she said.
“When you’re giving back to the community, it’s always so fulfilling.”
Back in Honduras, the impact of the pandemic had a profound effect on Mejia Ley, spurring her to establish Luceros.
The roots of the project can be traced to when Mejia Ley was tutoring girls at a school for victims of child abuse.
“I worked closely with the girls, I had drawn deep connections and really cared for them, and then the pandemic hit,” she said.
“I used to hear my friends saying ‘Oh it sucks that we’re only learning online’ and that we’re so unlucky to be in this situation.
“But then I thought of all the girls at the school and all the children in Honduras that didn’t even get to go to school for two whole years because of the pandemic and it really just put everything into perspective.
“We are a group of high school students who are extremely privileged to have access to education and if we can try and give these girls the same, working with them to secure their futures, then we will not only be helping them but we’ll be fulfilling ourselves, because charity does that to you.
“It gives you a sense of fulfillment, of social service and I truly believe that as much as you give, you will be given back to — and so I love helping those around me.”
She pitched the idea for Luceros to students at different schools in her home city of San Pedro Sula, telling them that with enough hard graft they can make it a success.
With the support of like-minded young people, local businesses and charities the project was up and running. It now has more than 100 members actively supporting its aims.
Mejia Ley has continued to serve as Luceros’ president since joining Duke Kunshan’s Class of 2026 in August and is set to arrive in Kunshan after completing the fall-semester study program in Barcelona.
On why she chose Duke Kunshan, she cited the opportunity to return to China as a “big factor”.
That it was founded as a joint venture by two highly regarded universities, Duke and Wuhan, was also a draw.
“When I saw that DKU was a fusion of the best of both worlds, I said ‘Well this is it, this is my choice’.”
Mejia Ley plans to study political science when she and her peers decide their majors in their sophomore year. In the past she has spoken of wanting to enter Honduran politics as a force for positive change.
However, she has opted against making a decision on her future at this stage of her life.
“I want to study political science but I’m not sure 100 percent if that’s what I want my career to be because even now there’s a lot of political uncertainty,” she said, noting that politicians and their families are sometimes the targets of violence.
“I’m not sure that is a risk that I want to take or that I’m willing to decide to take just now when I’m 18 years old.”
In the meantime, the combination of her studies and charity work continues to motivate her.
Asked how she manages to juggle such demands, she said, “I’m a very energetic person, I have a lot of leftover energy at the end of the day after I’m done with everything.
“At night I feel so much better knowing that I’ve worked as hard I could than if I didn’t do something because I was a little bit tired. “I do believe there is always time to rest, but I am also a believer in working as hard as you can. And then having a rest.”
