Zim Flores

About Zim

updated 3/2011: Zim Ugochukwu is a student organizer, community cultivator and lifelong learner. She will graduate from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a B.A. in Biology and double minors in Sociology and Political Science in May 2011. A first generation Nigerian American, she spent half of her formative years in Rochester, Minnesota, and the other half in Durham, NC. She is the recipient of UNCG’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Service Award, the National Society of Leadership and Success Service to Students Award, Glamour Magazine’s Twenty Amazing Young Women Award, and is theyoungest recipient of The Business Journal’s Top 40 under Forty Award 2011. As an undergraduate researcher, Zim contributed significantly to the research of Dr. Dennis LaJeunesse by discovering a link between a gene found in fruit flies and genes found in a rare genetic birth disorder, Treacher Collins syndrome. She is the Vice President of Activism with helloCHANGE, the largest national youth-run anti-tobacco project, serving thousands of young people and giving them the tools to effectively take a stand against Big Tobacco. She is also the founder of The Ignite Greensboro Project, a project based on mobilizing local college students in Greensboro to engage in their community through ongoing social action and comprehensive programs, providing a medium for the students to become effective catalysts for change and competent representatives of progress in our society. As a recent contributor to Just BE Cause, a how-to guide on social entrepreneurship and GenY, Zim is working to inspire and guide Millenials seeking to break into the realm of social responsibility and entrepreneurship. She is also currently co-developing the world’s first museum celebrating the accomplishments of youth. The museum aims to create a space inspiring young people to redefine the status quo. Her work inside the lab and within communities has motivated her to pursue a career in social entrepreneurship as a realistic way to fuse science and society.