{"id":621,"date":"2011-11-22T13:17:07","date_gmt":"2011-11-22T13:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vandfam.net\/dev\/wordpressmu\/college\/?p=621"},"modified":"2011-11-22T13:17:07","modified_gmt":"2011-11-22T13:17:07","slug":"amber-koonce-a-top-10-college-role-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=621","title":{"rendered":"Amber Koonce: A top 10 college role model"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Amber Koonce was named one of 2011’s Top 10 College Women by Glamour magazine. (photo by Dan Sears)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A savvy entrepreneur and social advocate, UNC\u00a0 senior Amber Koonce is now known as one of America\u2019s top ten college role models.<\/p>\n

Dubbed \u201cThe Social Entrepreneur\u201d<\/a> in Glamour magazine\u2019s October issue and online, Koonce is the founder of BeautyGap<\/a>, a nonprofit startup that collects and ships dolls of color to children of color around the world, and a tireless advocate for incarcerated and at-risk youth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up in a predominately white environment,\u201d\u00a0 says Koonce, who is majoring in both public policy studies and African and Afro-American studies, with a minor in entrepreneurship. \u201cI experienced many situations in which I felt left out, or like an outcast. Those early things shaped my adolescence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those negative experiences, she says, can change the course of a childhood, but for her, they were a call to action. With an ever-growing interest in social justice, she turned to advocacy and service.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose experiences put something in my subconscious. When I grew up, I was going to do everything I could to make sure children knew they didn\u2019t have to be marginalized or left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The summer after her first year at UNC, Koonce, a Morehead-Cain<\/a> scholar, traveled to Ghana to teach at a prison school for incarcerated women. There, she noticed children carrying baby dolls that looked nothing like them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey would ask me questions, like, why did I look like them if I was American? Many of them were frustrated by their skin and hair color. And they all had only white dolls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back at UNC, a documentary studies class led her to interview black men and women about standards of beauty in black culture, and a turn as Lady in Red in Lab! Theatre\u2019s production of the Tony-award winning play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf<\/em> deepened her interest in black womanhood and self-acceptance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Africa, a gap between a woman’s two front teeth is considered the standard of beauty, often called the beauty gap. I learned that you have to be careful not to project your ideas and experiences on a different culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

This idea of a \u201cbeauty gap\u201d offered a name for a new idea and startup business. \u201cI started collecting dolls, receiving donations from people and feedback from girls, and I knew this was my chance to do my part.\u201d A JNO Award in Entrepreneurial Studies<\/a> for the minor in entrepreneurship helped push her business forward. BeautyGap recently reached full 501(c)(3) status, and has distributed more than 150 dolls.<\/p>\n

Since her freshman year, Koonce has been active in Criminal Justice Action and Awareness<\/a> (CJAA), a campus organization that works to enhance student awareness of the problems affecting the criminal justice system. Through CJAA, Koonce volunteers for Durham Youth Home, a home for incarcerated youth, and as co-chair, she inspires other students to do the same.<\/p>\n

Koonce’s post-graduation wish list includes a return to Ghana and a continued mission to advocate for at-risk youth.<\/p>\n

A Pearson Prize for Higher Education will help with law school in the coming years, but she\u2019s in no hurry. Before studying to become a juvenile defense attorney, she will first take a year and learn more about what she\u2019s fighting for.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo much can happen in a year,\u201d she says. \u201cI went to Ghana for two months, such a short amount of time, and it changed everything. It shaped my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A savvy entrepreneur and social advocate, UNC senior Amber Koonce is now known as one of America\u2019s top ten college role models.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diversity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}