A retired Menlo Park teacher completed her seventh summer volunteering to teach math at a high school for girls in Africa — a school that she raised more than $1 million to build.

Margo McAuliffe marvels still at how much the experience in Kenya has changed her since 2003 when she retired from her job as a high school math teacher and was looking for a way to put her time and talents to good work.

Though she had never raised a cent before, the quiet gray-haired teacher did it one step at a time by enlisting friends and holding small fundraisers. Eventually she set up a non-profit foundation called Kenya Help.

(WATCH her tell the story in her TED Talk, or read the full story in Patch.com)