When you think of Africa, what comes to mind? Using the power of storytelling, Katie Krueger challenges her audience to look at the continent through a different lens. Turn away from the image of despair, poverty, disease, war and famine. Instead imagine  hospitality, wisdom, brilliant linguists, progress, and peace. While living and studying in Dakar, Senegal in 2004 as a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholar, Katie sought the secret to happiness that all of the Senegalese seemed to share. By learning through language, travel, friendship, and love, Katie distilled the secret into six distinct lessons.  Katie inspires her audience to live their life full of gratitude.Katie is the co-founder of Project Japale Gouné, a non-profitschool lunch program in Dakar, Senegal. Through its school lunch program, this organization serves over 10,000 meals each year to 200 low-income students. Katie brings to life the challenges of international social entrepreneurship. While her talk brings the audience to a higher level of thinking, it also shares practical advice for students interested in social entrepreneurship, language learning, and other adventures.

Forbes.com Article

Transitions Abroad Article

Sample writing on Senegal

“Katie Krueger’s reflections of her time in Senegal are told with humor, clarity and and deep appreciation for the Senegalese people and their culture. This would be a a perfect text for a common-reading program at a university or a book club. It is a beautifully written piece that it also entertaining and educational.”  (Amazon.com review)

“This book is filled with vivid details and charming anecdotes. It is a wonderfully inspirational story that brings to life the Senegalese people and culture. It made me want to go visit! I can’t wait to read more from this author.” (Amazon.com review)

Katie Krueger is a writer, teacher, and social entrepreneur. She is the author of Give with Gratitude: Lessons Learned Listening to West Africa and her writing has appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, the Travel Channel’s World Hum, Transitions Abroad and the Utne Reader. One of the chapters  – “My Senegalese Cousin, The Rice-Loving Pig” – was included in Simon Winchester’s book Best Travel Writing of 2009.  Katie’s entrepreneurship began in 2003 while living in Dakar, Senegal. With two friends, she cofounded a nonprofit lunch program Project Japale Goune, which today feeds over 10,000 lunches to poor elementary school children living in Dakar each year. Soon after, Katie continued her entrepreneurial pursuits by starting a publishing company and a grant writing business. After earning her MBA in Entrepreneurship from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, she became the first full-time employee of Spill, a Tech Stars start-up with a social mission: to help college students connect with supportive and empathetic peers online. Along with the Spill founder, another UW-Madison alumna, Katie fundraised over $400,000 and helped win first place in the the Global Social Venture Competition in 2012. Katie currently teaches Marketing at the University of Wisconsin’s Wisconsin School of Business.   She is passionate about languages and fluent in French with varying levels of skills in Wolof, Serer, Hindi, and Portuguese. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin with her son and husband.