UPDATE TO THIS STORY:"I'm so proud to announce that Lovetta Conto, our first Strongheart Fellow, is a finalist for the International Children's Peace Prize! It's an incredible honor, given through an organization called KidsRight, with the support of the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates."-Cori Stern-Founder of Strongheart Fellowship.

Consider growing up in a place where all you know is war. Trying to find the good in life would be difficult. For fifteen-year old, Lovetta Conto, promising future did not seem to be anywhere within her reach. 

Fleeing to a refugee camp in Ghana, Africa at a young age, She tried to overcome the lifestyle she was growing up in. Lovetta had always seen herself acquiring a good education and achieving great success. However, without money or decent jobs, it was hard for her father to keep up with tuition for school. 

Lovetta said, “In Africa, everywhere you turn you are told, “It ain’t gonna happen”. But my dad would always say, “Keep walking. Press on. It’s going to happen.” Fortuanately for all parties, her father was right. Opportunities came knocking when Lovetta met a woman by the name of Cori Stern. Stern founded an organization called Strongheart Fellowship because she strongly believed in helping young people living in unfavorable conditions and giving them the materials they needed to change their downward spiraling futures. 

Lovetta’s life would change forever when she became the first Strongheart fellow. Her first task as a member was to create a project that would help her and others. The project also had to relate to a career she wanted to pursue in the future. Even though she felt she was letting her father down by going against his dream for her to study law, she felt that she needed to choose this path. Her true passion, she came to find, was design. 

Lovetta said, “No matter how down the women in the refugee camp were, they always found a way to express themselves with beautiful jewelry and clothes they made from what they had.” After getting the courage to admit to her father and to Strongheart what she wanted to pursue, there was no stopping her. 

Lovetta is now the designer of a line of jewelry called AKAWELLE. The first part of the word, “Aka”, translates to “also known as”. The last part of the word, “we’le”, translates to “love”. Theses pieces of jewelry are made from melted bullet shells that were fired during the Liberian Civil war. The money from the jewelry goes to her future and to helping create the first Strongheart House. This house is where she will soon be living with other young ambitious people like herself. 

She is also in the process of starting a magazine for the young teens of Africa. Creek’s Hilife newspaper students welcomed Lovetta to the school last year. They helped her to jumpstart her magazine and design the cover which she presented at the Aspen Institute in the summer of 2008. 

Lovetta is just one of the many people who have never let where they came from, and the many hardships they have gone through, go against who they truly are. Her dream is to take what she has learned and help others to believe in themselves. Even though her actions are small, she has made a big difference in many people’s lives. She truly is a role model to young people around the world.