Sophia Aliza Jamal, co-founder of Pinkcollar Employment Agency, has received the Beyond Duke Leadership and Service Award from her alma mater, Duke University. The award recognises alumni for distinguished service to their community, country or society.

For the past eight years, Sophia has worked on fair and responsible recruitment through Pinkcollar, Malaysia’s first ethical recruitment business, which she co-founded with Zenna Law. Pinkcollar places Southeast Asian female migrant workers in safe household service and home care jobs. This is complex work, especially while building a financially viable business in a highly regulated and inefficient industry.

“Leadership and service are generous words to be recognised for,” Sophia said. “I am deeply humbled.”

Sophia credits her time at Duke with shaping the path she took after graduation:

• Duke Sanford School of Public Policy taught her that a life of service means accepting the possibility of being “a cog in the wheel.” Social change is rarely glamorous or linear. It requires collective trust, navigating complex systems and political realities, and accepting that you may never see the full extent of the change you hope to create.
• Duke Innovation and Entrepreneurship taught her that good intentions alone cannot sustain a business. If customers don’t believe in your vision, you cannot build a viable business. At Pinkcollar, that has meant listening to sometimes painful feedback, observing the market and continually pivoting.
• Mentors beyond the classroom, including professors Tony Brown, Edmund Malesky and Catherine Admay, gave her encounters that shaped a young student finding her way. One professor once told her, “Be courageous, Sophia, and don’t be afraid to define your life on your own terms.” That experience taught her never to underestimate the power of role models.

The award arrives as Sophia approaches ten years since her graduation from Duke and the start of a new chapter in her life. She reflects that climate change, AI and polarising politics are reshaping societies and bringing greater inequality, uncertainty and disruption.

“I believe more than ever that we are being called to rethink what leadership and service mean today, and what we owe the generations who will inherit the world we are shaping,” she said. “I hope to remain curious, open-minded and willing to continually reimagine what it means to lead and serve.”

Pinkcollar Employment Agency is Malaysia’s first ethical recruitment business, placing Southeast Asian female migrant workers in safe household jobs. Sophia is a Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia (Social Impact) honouree and a board member of MYImpact.

Read more in Sophia's own words on LinkedIn.