Education Bridge (Fall 2023)

Project Background

Education Bridge seeks to create flourishing South Sudanese communities through holistic education and conflict transformation. As part of this mission, Education Bridge opened its first school, Greenbelt Academy Bor, in South Sudan in February 2017. Led by South Sudanese Notre Dame graduate Majak Anyieth ’17 (who was a student in this International Development in Practice class), Greenbelt Academy Bor High School has grades 9-12, and in a very short time, has become one of the strongest academic schools in South Sudan. Last year, Education Bridge opened its second school, Greenbelt Academy Juba, in the capital of South Sudan. Greenbelt Academies seek to provide quality secondary education as well as to develop a generation of South Sudanese who are not only well prepared academically, but who also see themselves as peacemakers and transformational leaders.

Education Bridge aspires to achieve its mission by building a network of secondary schools that provide access to quality secondary education, innovative peace education, and transformative leadership development. The organization plans to build a network of 10 secondary schools across the country. Their two schools currently serve more than 750 students in grades 9-12. In 2021, Greenbelt Academy in Bor ranked as the top school in South Sudan based on national standardized exams.

Definition of Opportunity

As we continue expanding our school network, we want to ensure that we do not lose or compromise what makes us unique and successful as a school network. We ask the DAT team to explore similar networks (e.g., charter schools and international school networks in other parts of the world) and to provide recommendations on how the schools have been able to scale with quality. More specifically, we hope the team will explore what should be key elements to evaluate before expanding our school network.

Definition of Success

The team’s work should provide targets on some of these aspects to be assessed as indicators of readiness for engaging in an expansion strategy.

Based on experiences of other school networks, provide actionable recommendations that address concrete institutional, instructional and operational criteria that Education Bridge should assess before further expansion. We are also interested in how Education Bridge can use data from their own experiences to accelerate the growth and quality of their programs, and inform the criteria around expansion.

Meet the Team

Prototyping Writing Workshops For Students & Teacher | Education Bridge (Fall 2022)

Project Background

Education Bridge seeks to create flourishing South Sudanese communities through education and peacebuilding.  As part of this mission, Education Bridge opened its first school, Greenbelt Academy Bor, in South Sudan in February 2017. Led by South Sudanese Notre Dame graduate Majak Anyieth ’17, Greenbelt Academy Bor currently serves 500 students in grades 9-12, and in a very short time, has become one of the strongest academic schools in South Sudan. Early last year, Education Bridge opened its second school, Greenbelt Academy Juba, in the capital of South Sudan. Greenbelt Academies seek to provide quality secondary education as well as to develop a generation of South Sudanese who are not only well prepared academically, but who also see themselves as peacemakers and transformational leaders.

Definition of Opportunity

Building more effective communication skills (both written and oral) for high schools are critical. There is an opportunity to build a new communications/writing program – by working closely with the writing program at Notre Dame. This might mean to work alongside EB students in drafting and writing essays for college admissions, pre college admissions, and admissions to other programs such as the African Leadership Academy. You might also explore ways to engage faculty, administrators, and students currently at the school to help each other support and build a writing program. 

Definition of Success

Education Bridge aims to provide growth pathways for students where Education Bridge builds networks of the most talented students and educators in South Sudan, and finds new ways to support their growth over time (for example, building communication skills capacity).

Meet the Team

Final Deliverable

Creation of a New Empowerment Curriculum | Education Bridge (Spring 2022)

Project Background

Education Bridge seeks to create flourishing South Sudanese communities through education and peacebuilding.  As part of this mission, Education Bridge opened its first school, Greenbelt Academy Bor, in South Sudan in February 2017. Led by South Sudanese Notre Dame graduate Majak Anyieth ’17, Greenbelt Academy Bor currently serves 500 students in grades 9-12, and in a very short time, has become one of the strongest academic schools in South Sudan. Early last year, Education Bridge opened its second school, Greenbelt Academy Juba, in the capital of South Sudan. Greenbelt Academies seek to provide quality secondary education as well as to develop a generation of South Sudanese who are not only well prepared academically, but who also see themselves as peacemakers and transformational leaders.

Definition of Opportunity

With the recent launch of a new school in Juba, Education Bridge is now poised as one of the top secondary schools in South Sudan. Now, the organization is looking for ways to attract and foster high-quality teachers to improve learning outcomes across the schools. Further, once launched, Education Bridge is looking for ways to see the impact of its efforts. It should be easy to see changes in teacher practices. It will likely be much harder to see changes in student outcomes, and you will need a control group to make this pilot evaluation credible.

Definition of Success

Conversations with Majak, Jenny, & the Board will help to provide context and ideas for this training. Further, it may also be very helpful to contact students that are currently at Education Bridge, or alumni for more context.

)) how to ensure student learning gains and measure this impact?

2) the extent to which you want to consider professional growth pathways beyond this initial training, such that this training program would be viewed as a first step in a sequence?

3) How do you conceptualize the design and measure the success of the program and how do you draw upon the best available research about what works to improve teaching and student learning outcomes in LMICs in primary education? 

4) The other thing worth thinking about is the extent to which your vision for the program is about human capital formation of your alumni (or other promising young educators) and creating cohorts of smart, talented, innovative teachers to grow as educational leaders and innovators within the system. 

Meet the Team

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Final Deliverable

Education Bridge (Fall 2021)

Project Background

  Education Bridge seeks to create flourishing South Sudanese communities through education and peacebuilding.  As part of this mission, Education Bridge opened its first school, Greenbelt Academy Bor, in South Sudan in February 2017. Led by South Sudanese Notre Dame graduate Majak Anyieth ’17, Greenbelt Academy Bor currently serves 500 students in grades 9-12, and in a very short time, has become one of the strongest academic schools in South Sudan. In 2022, Education Bridge plans to open its second school, Greenbelt Academy Juba, in the capital of South Sudan. Greenbelt Academies seek to provide quality secondary education as well as to develop a generation of South Sudanese who are not only well prepared academically, but who also see themselves as peacemakers and transformational leaders.

Definition of Opportunity

Education Bridge has worked with Notre Dame DAT teams over multiple semesters on projects related to developing a peacebuilding curriculum, building enhanced opportunities for students, and enhancing international partnerships. Education Bridge now seeks assistance on how to successfully transition from a singular school to a network of schools across South Sudan. The goal of this project would be to research and create a system and brand to effectively manage multiple Greenbelt Academies. 

Definition of Success

 The development and implementation of a sustainable management and branding program that will enable Education Bridge to effectively manage a network of Greenbelt Academies. Systems should be implemented to make the management and branding process efficient and effective, including a database of branding materials for school management to access, communication channels for inter-school exchange, as well as other materials that the DAT team deems useful. 

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Final Deliverables

Vital Strategies (Fall 2021)

Project Background

 Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in 73 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible.

Birth registration has been called the “first right of a child” as it is the first official recognition of an individual after birth.  UNICEF has estimated that four out of ten children who are born do not have their births registered.  80 percent of the children whose births are not registered are born in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. It is also estimated that less than half of all deaths occurring in the world are registered. Additionally, the cause of death in far fewer of these cases is medically certified and recorded.  In the context of the Covid-19 sweeping the world, this is a major obstacle to focusing attention and resources to contain and prevent the spread of the pandemic.  

Functional civil registration systems and vital statistics (CRVS) systems provide the fertility and mortality statistics including the cause of death estimates which help to plan, deliver and monitor health and social development programs.   They are thus a key element in the governance mechanisms tracking progress towards national and international commitments such as the Sustainable Development Programmes.  However, the results in terms of timely registration of all birth and deaths; the ability to record the proximate and underlying causes of deaths; publish national vital statistics reports drawing data from civil registration sources are all far from satisfactory in most countries in Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia. Birth registration rates have seen a significant improvement in several countries in South Asia and in some countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.  But death registration rates and the generation of data from causes of death still remain a major concern. 

Definition of Opportunity

The objective is to move the conversation beyond the constituencies that are traditionally engaged in this area (demographers, statisticians, medical professionals) to stakeholders in the area of governance, public policy, public administration, the general public, etc.

Definition of Success

We hope that the team will work on developing, prototyping, and testing communications vehicles that the most effective communication vehicles to reach these audiences? Can we articulate the CRVS concerns of practitioners and scholars through opinion pieces that can take the content in such articles to a wider audience?

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Final Deliverables

Rusalia (Fall 2021)

Project Background

The Rusalia Resource Foundation (RRF) is a registered non-profit legal entity operating in Kisumu, Kenya with a parallel non-profit organization located in South Bend, Indiana. Founded by Dr. Juliana Otieno, a Kenyan pediatrician who was in the 2019-2020 academic year Inspired Leadership Program at Notre Dame, RRF works to empower girls in Western Kenyan by providing full high school tuition scholarships and mentorship opportunities, with a special focus on life skills education. Rusalia Scholars are expected to be “college-ready” and learn the value of education, personal strength, independence, life skills, and service to the community. The project aims to help girls develop improved life skills, including being able to handle social challenges and conflicts in an environment where they are independent of parental guidance. In addition, the program works to improve girls’ knowledge and skills on nutrition and overall healthy development.

The goals of RRF’s works are 1) To provide opportunity and create an enabling environment for girls to become self-actualized adults by providing access to an integrated support system including education, scholarship at high school and college, growth opportunities, values, and mentorship that would otherwise not be available due to the circumstances of their families 2) To enrich the academic experience of Rusalia scholars through mentoring and training from professionals and others with special expertise, such as health advocacy, particularly in preventive medicine protocols, and environmental management.

RRF has carried out two mentorship programs in partnership with ND Development Advisory Teams. The first mentorship activity focused on building an empowered girl child in building confidence, communication skills, and some knowledge on reproductive health issues. The second mentoring activity involved giving the RRF scholars skills to live in a new college or university environment. It empowered them to have people skills and networking capacity as well as preparing them for general college life.

Definition of Opportunity

Notre Dame students will work directly with girls in the program (RRF scholars) and with Rusalia leadership to explore educational and behavioral opportunities (might be curriculum, experiential, web-based platform, etc.) that address concrete responses to climate change. We hope to engage the RRF scholars to bring out their stories of experiences of the effects of climate change from their family and home perspectives. The RRF scholars will share their stories and in the process work with the ND students to create a learning platform. The platform will provide perspectives of the girls’ understanding of climate change and initiate a process of mindset and behavior change. The girls and ND students together will be involved in the development of a behavior change model for the transformation of society generally and the African community in particular. We hope for a process of joint design, helping the girls feel empowered to design programs that connect with these issues both globally and locally, tapping into the idea of“Think globally, act locally.” This might involve building a climate change curriculum or finding other ways that the girls can help lead locally in addressing climate change and environmental concerns.

Definition of Success

The DAT will help RFF support educational and leadership activities for the girls related to climate change. We look forward to understanding more about the most inspiring and concrete examples of the best programs globally for providing climate change education and engagement and translating these into the local context. We hope to take specific lessons from these international experiences and build them into our own programming, and try out many of these ideas, working directly with the girls in the program. 

Meet the Team

Final Deliverables

Rusalia and Climate Change by ND DAT

Bethany Land Institute (Fall 2021)

Project Background

Bethany Land Institute represents a new model: an integrated approach to fight poverty, restore dignity and care for creation. BLI’s goal is to inspire similar models that can revitalize rural livelihoods in Uganda, and its mission is to train leaders in rural Uganda and set a new standard for sustainable creation care, food production and economic well being in Africa. The mission is realized through three key programs of the Bethany Land Institute:

Mary’s Farm: A sustainable farm that conducts educational and mentorship programs in sustainable practices of land use and food production.

Lazarus’ Trees: A forest, which serves as a catalyst for a major countrywide reforestation effort and an education base for a new ecological consciousness.

Martha’s Market: A Savings and Credit Cooperative Organization (SACCO), which serves as the business hub of BLI and the engine for ongoing economic entrepreneurship of BLI caretakers. Among others, Martha’s market will set up, manage and operate a retreat center and a roadside market (to provide a market for the produce, a rest stop for travelers, and publicity for the BLI vision and programs).

Definition of Opportunity

BLI is a unique initiative, whose programs of learning (Mary's farm), renewing (Lazarus Forest) and sustaining (Martha's Market) offer a unique methodology of integral ecology that responds to twin cries of the cry of the earth and cry of the poor. BLI does not want this model and mission to spread solely around rural Uganda but wants to engage with scholars, students, and researchers across the world who will learn from BLI and bring their own gifts to campus. Therefore, BLI wants to develop an internship program at its campus in Nandere in which US or European students and scholars can live at BLI, both learning about integral ecology and Pope Francis’ Laudato Si as well as providing value to BLI with their presence and skills.

Definition of Success

Ultimately BLI is hoping that the team will help BLI understand the role that immersive education experiences (including internships and fellowship) play at BLI, and explore how these contribute both to participants and to BLI. The team will further delve into one of these immersive experiences (one designed for US students) and help design the program, helping set and manage visitors' preparation, expectations, field experience, reflections, and continuing engagement.

Meet the Team

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Final Deliverables

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Building International Partnerships for Students and Teachers - Education Bridge (Fall 2019)

Project Background:

Education Bridge seeks to create flourishing South Sudanese communities through education and peacebuilding. As part of this mission, Education Bridge opened its first school, Greenbelt Academy, in Bor, South Sudan in February 2017. Led by South Sudanese Notre Dame graduate Majak Anyieth ’17, the Greenbelt Academy currently serves over 400 students in grades 9-11, with plans to double the school population and have grades 9-12 over the next years. The Greenbelt Academy seeks to provide quality secondary education as well as to develop a generation of South Sudanese who are not only well prepared academically, but who also see themselves as peacemakers and transformational leaders.

Definition of Opportunity:

Education Bridge has worked with Notre Dame DAT teams over multiple semesters on projects related to developing a peacebuilding curriculum, building enhanced opportunities for girls, contributing to organizational sustainability, and international partnerships. For example, this past year’s DAT resulted in Education Bridge high school students attending Notre Dame’s Pre-College Program (on ND scholarships), as well as a similar program at Yale. Education Bridge now wants to explore the possibility of continuing to build networks internationally in the service of its students and teachers that expand opportunities, as well as formalize relationships that support the development of the overall organizational culture of Education Bridge.

Initial Ideas:

Education Bridge will work with a team of ND students to research how other non-profit organizations, especially those running educational and/or child development programs in the international context, have effectively built mission-driven international networks. We would like to focus on students' opportunities and/or faculty/staff professional development opportunities.

How can we connect our students with a wider set of global possibilities, whether through technology or by travel, that will help expand their understanding of the world and their possibility to make a transformational change? We believe we can draw lessons from the African Leadership Academy and other institutions, and want to explore student exchange, model UN, leadership development and the like. How can we build on the success this past semester with the partnerships with Notre Dame and Yale? We might like a usable database of summer educational programs in the US students can explore (ND Pre-College might be very valuable for acquiring information).

One key question is how to make our students and faculty competitive especially through the university application process. A big part of our international partnership model is related to universities and we need to understand what universities look for in these kinds of candidates and partnerships. A good model for partnering will help us build lasting relationships with universities that will go a long way.

How can we find relevant development opportunities in support of teachers and administrators? We could also imagine a “Greenbelt Fellowship” that might draw talented educators and professionals to work with the Greenbelt Academy to help develop and train current teachers, develop new curricular and extracurricular activities, and more generally expose the school to more innovative pedagogy and technology.

What does success look like?

The development of a number of good models and concrete contacts and ideas for building networks and sustainable partnerships will be relevant for Education Bridge students and teachers, as well as concrete proposals that Education Bridge can utilize and implement as part of its strategic planning process to become a more dynamic and sustainable organization.

Contact Persons: Majak Anyieth, Founder and President of Education Bridge. Majak is a 2018 graduate of the University of Notre Dame. He is also a Dalai Lama Fellow, an Echoing Green Social Entrepreneurship Fellow, and a StartingBloc Fellow. The team will also have access to talk with Education Bridge board members and supporters, most of whom are in South Bend IN.

Meet the Team:

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