2025 Dottie Lamm Leadership Award Winner Naomi Tamajong
Life doesn’t always give you lemons, sometimes you just have to make orange juice.
Every year the Dottie Lamm Leadership Award honors a young woman’s commitment to advancing and accelerating opportunities for women all across the state. We celebrate her resilience and leadership. Our 2025 Dottie Lamm Leadership Award winner was Naomi Tamajong! An advocate for gender and racial equity inside and outside of the classroom, member of seven clubs (and president of two), Naomi embodies the spirit of leadership and advocacy that the Dottie Lamm Leadership Award celebrates. Here is her speech from our 2025 Annual Luncheon.
“Much like the world we are in today – the unexpected IS often truly unexpected. But we still have to figure out a way. We might not always have a guideline, but we can find a solution.”
Today I’m going to tell you how life doesn’t always give you lemons, sometimes you just have to make orange juice.
I am Naomi Tamajong. I am a Cameroonian-American girl who lives in Aurora and loves my culture.
Those who know me might describe me as confident for putting myself out there; hard working for bearing fruits of my labor; fun for my energetic spirit; or extroverted for not being afraid to talk to anyone!
I am also proud that I am ready for anything and everything. I know that when I step out of my comfort zone, THAT’S when I truly shine.
Some people like being a leader because they like the power. But to me, a leader can change a program, idea, system, or EVEN somebody’s life.
Growing up, my father had to work out of state a lot, leaving my mom to take care of me and my siblings while juggling college and a job. I didn’t realize how much of a struggle it was for her, but as I’ve grown up and listened to her prayers that me and my siblings have a better life, it hit me.
Even though she wasn’t a single mom, she was still struggling to survive alone. She was a leader. And now I am, too.
Leadership, Culture, and Community
I am working towards graduating high school with my associates degree. I’m on my school’s student council and heavily involved in seven clubs. Of those, I’m president of two, including BSA, our Black Student Alliance.
Every year, BSA showcases our African culture in a show called “Taste of Diaspora.” It’s a show about the dispersion of African migrant people. It proves that even though we’re in America, we still have that culture within us! We invite schools from all around the district to participate.
The day of the show, 30 minutes before curtain call, a sponsor said to me “the show is too long and every act has to be cut to 3 minutes.”
It was a big moment. I couldn’t break down. It wasn’t just me who needed an answer and a solution. The thing about being a leader is… if we’re all at the shore, who’s going to carry the boats?
So I took a breath, wiped my tears. I calmly explained the gravity of the event. We work all year on our performances as a way to express ourselves. At a time when we have fewer spaces to connect and divides are growing, this is MORE THAN a show! It is shared hope and understanding and belonging.
We compromised. We cut a few acts, shortened some intermissions. In the end, it all worked out.
We Can Always Find a Way
Much like the world we are in today – the unexpected…. IS often truly unexpected. But we still have to figure out a way. We might not always have a guideline, but we can find a solution. We might not have lemons, but we can always make orange juice.
I appreciate The Women’s Foundation of Colorado for helping women who go through things just like my mom or worse. If she’d had support from this organization when she was raising me, our lives could’ve been so different.
Today, if you can help a different little girl and her mom, that’ll mean the world to me.
As I conclude, it’s important for me to say that actions are more powerful than words. But I’m not strong enough to make big actions, so instead I’ll use big words.
Through my poetry and essays, I advocate for gender and racial equality. And I remind us that even in the worst of times, we can always find a way.
Even if life gives us lemons, we just have to make orange juice.
Because those who are handed the lemons are blinded from the truth.
Life is unexpected, out of control.
You don’t get to choose if you can stay out of trouble.
We can go through things that are as sour as lemons.
Some of us doubted just because we’re feminine.
But we got through it, all of us, together.
So lemonade tastes great, but orange juice is better.
Naomi Tamajong is a junior at Rangeview High School in Aurora, Colorado, who is also attaining her associate’s degree in criminal justice law. She is president of the Black Student Alliance and Speech & Debate team. She is a self-described “wild card,” who enjoys photography, digital design, nails, painting, poetry, writing, and sometimes hair. She likes taking advantage of all that life has given her, especially traveling. It is her goal to go to all 50 states before she turns 50. She aspires to become a criminal justice lawyer and own her own law firm.
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