Allie Wallace has an idea how to change the world, and it is a good bet she will see her vision come to life.

The 22-year-old Maple Valley woman is a Tahoma High graduate and 2009 winner of the Miss Auburn Scholarship Program.

Wallace left for a mission trip to Makeni, Sierra Leone, in West Africa on March 19. She was with a missionary medical team working with children in an orphanage.

The group was gone 11 days, returning this week.

The mission was organized through New Community Church in Maple Valley and the mission group is called The Bridge.

Wallace is completing her bachelor’s degree in economics at Seattle Pacific University. While working at the orphanage, she collected information for a project to develop a microlending program in impoverished countries like Sierra Leone.

The principle of microlending is to give small loans to people in poor areas who could not qualify for a traditional loan.

“The loans are generally given to women,” Wallace said. “Maybe A $50 loan to get a sewing machine. My goal is to have groups of women get a collective loan. If one woman can’t make a payment the others can help. The default is so low because if they can’t pay, they can’t feed their family. My goal is to raise funds for it.”

Wallace said she learned about the idea of microcredit and microlending when reading of Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi professor of economics and Nobel Peace Prize winner.

“He completely reformed poverty in Bangladesh,” Wallace said. “He’s my hero.”

Wallace is working now to complete her last quarter at Seattle Pacific.

She also plans to participate in the Miss Washington Scholarship Organization on July 10-11 in Renton.