Viewing entries tagged
education

Education Bridge (Fall 2023)

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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

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Domingo Savio (Fall 2023)

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Domingo Savio (Fall 2023)

Project Background

Domingo Savio was founded in 1979 by Olga Diaz as a residential orphanage or “hogar” for children living in Santiago, Chile. Today, Nuestro Club Domingo Savio continues to work with children and their families living in challenging situations through an “after-school” and other enrichment programs.

Olga continues to lead the work of Nuestro Club Domingo Savio with creativity and resourcefulness, as she has done for more than 40 years. Olga and her colleagues remain committed to expanding opportunities for the school-age children who actively participate in Domingo Savio’s educational and enrichment programs, as well as with adult family members and elderly people who often live in isolation in the local community. Mi Club is supported entirely by donations. Increasingly, most "in kind" contributions for food, clothing, and school supplies are local, as are an increasing percentage of monetary donations. They also rely on local interns and international volunteers to lead “talleres” (workshops) for the children after school. Steve Reifenberg lived and worked at Domingo Savio from 1982-1984 and wrote a book about the experiences called “Santiago’s Children: What I Learned about Life at an Orphanage in Chile.” He has remained involved with Domingo Savio, and is chair of the board.

Definition of Opportunity

The primary objective of this project is to develop a way of telling the story of Domingo Savio and its impact on children and their communities, so Domingo Savio is able to better generate support and attract international volunteers. This includes recording the stories of former participants in the programs of Domingo Savio and understanding how the program impacted their lives. The team will use these stories to help update the website and incorporate this storytelling into their design as well as develop more concrete information/expectations and a formal application process for international volunteers.

Definition of Success

We aspire that this DAT project will generate impactful narrative stories of Domingo Savio’s work, with concrete examples of impact and personal testimonies. As a result, Domingo Savio would have an engaging and updated website that would draw in more donations and support. The site would also have a volunteer application process that both encourages more volunteers to come and allows Domingo Savio to better filter prospective volunteers before arrival. They will have a portfolio of testimonies and stories from members of the new program for elderly people experiencing solitude.

Meet the Team

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Enseña Chile (Spring 2023)

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Enseña Chile (Spring 2023)

Enhancing Leadership Development in Chilean Schools

Partner Background

The non-profit educational organization, Enseña Chile is promoting a movement to transform opportunities for public school students in Chile. Inspired by Teach for America in the US, Enseña Chile works to develop educational leaders committed to improving access to excellent educational opportunities for students regardless of socio-economic circumstances. Founded in Santiago in 2007 by Enseña Chile CEO Tomas Recart, the organization works to provide quality education for high school students by bringing outstanding university graduates with leadership skills into under-resourced schools. Through its Colegios que Aprenden (CQA) consulting unit, Enseña Chile is working to produce a system-wide impact on issues of educational quality, leadership, and equity.

 



Definition of Opportunity

Over the past ten years, Enseña Chile has partnered with Notre Dame’s International Development in Practice class and the i-Lab Master of Global Affairs program to evaluate best practices and key aspects of supporting educational leaders in Chile. The 2022 i-Lab project examined the role that school leadership plays, and focuses on the key role of principals for enhancing outcomes for students.  In the process, the i-Lab team developed a leadership development tool for principals. This DAT project aspires to explore models that can help disseminate and actively use the tool to promote activities that can support the sharing of good school leadership practices in Chile.  It is critical to define how the tool can be used within the framework of Enseña Chile CQA’s coaching sessions, and more generally to promote leadership and teacher development. 

Definition of Success

Enseña Chile seeks to implement the findings from the i-Lab team report, and find the most effective way principals might use the tool which focuses on three overarching themes: Build Trust, Be Coherent, and Develop a Learning Culture.

Meet the Team

Final Deliverable

Ensena Chile Presentation F23 by Joseph Drey on Scribd

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

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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

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

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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

Final Deliverable

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Education Bridge (Fall 2021)

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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. 

Meet the Team

Final Deliverables

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Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (Spring 2021)

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Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (Spring 2021)

Project Background:

In the southern Indian state of Telangana, the Telangana Social/ Tribal Welfare Residential Education Institution Societies (the “Society”), a government office dedicated to improving educational outcomes for historically marginalized students through residential education, works to advance the social and educational equity of children by offering them more effective, high-quality and holistic learning and life skills opportunities. Developing a holistic education system that meets the complex needs of these learners requires careful assessment of how both existing and potential activities align within a whole-child development approach (an approach that addresses all aspects of a child’s well-being: physical, cognitive, social and emotional). Notre Dame’s Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC), as the leading organization for this project, will match the society’s vision with the tools and supports it needs to achieve its goals, refine its processes, and sustain them into the future.

In this newly-started project (December 2020 - September 2024), the GC-DWC will support and advise key educators and members of the society, including teachers and principals, on how to develop and integrate a whole-child development framework into program activities. The GC-DWC also will strengthen the society’s capacity to adopt a whole-child development lens in programming by offering best-practice workshops as well as training on how to measure the efficacy and impact of their programs. The inclusive design of the research process strives to ensure the sustainability of project activities long after the project period.


Opportunity:

 Within the context of Project Sampoorna, there is opportunity to explore, in detail, ways in which gender impacts student retention in India and more specifically in Society Residential schools in Telangana. Early marriage often results in girls having to leave school early, and boys often drop out early to support income needs for their families. As the GC-DWC begins its work with the Society, a detailed look at how gender impacts education programming and how to improve retention rates within Residential schools throughout Project Sampoorna is essential. 

 

Definition of Success:

  • Display of a collaborative relationship with the Society & the GC-DWC

  • A deep understanding of gender issues in education in India, with a specific grasp of Society programming and the Project Sampoorna approach. 

  • A clear & useful proposal for programming solutions to this need

Meet the Team:

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Final Deliverables:

Final Presentation

Handout



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Vía Educación (Spring 2021)

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Vía Educación (Spring 2021)

Project Background:

Vía Educación is a non-profit organization in Mexico seeking to improve people’s quality of life by promoting sustainable social development through education. The organization believes that every person is capable of improving their opportunities in life as well as those of their communities. The organization’s main objective is to implement best practices and share knowledge related to quality education and social transformation from an interdisciplinary and systemic perspective. It has a professional team of more than 40 collaborators in seven cities of the country, committed to equal opportunities for quality education, the development of communities and families, human rights, respect for the dignity of people and confidence in their transformation potential.  Since its beginnings, the organization has placed a strong focus on research and the evaluation of its programs. This year, the Monitoring, Learning & Evaluation team is transitioning and expanding into a laboratory of social innovation. Among other things, the lab will focus on designing innovations and generating evidence to inform and address social and educational challenges. 

Opportunity:

 Vía Educación seeks to collaborate with the DAT Team in carrying out a comparative study of the educational context and indicators in the two Mexican states of Nuevo León and Yucatán. Some of the questions to explore are:  (1) What are the challenges that the education systems in these states are facing/will face because of the school closures to prevent the spread of COVID-19? and (2) What are some actions and innovations that may help overcome these challenges? Thus, Vía Educación would like the DAT team to contribute to these by providing initial inputs to deepen the understanding of the context in such states and to have a basis to design innovations that respond to their educational needs.

 

Definition of Success:

Working with the Notre Dame DAT, Vía hopes to be inspired to design and implement new responses to the educational opportunities of the five targeted states by having a first analysis of each state and some initial ideas of forward-thinking practices worth exploring.

Meet the Team:

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Final Deliverables:

Final Presentation

One-Pager

Letter Writing Guidelines

Deportes de Comunidades

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Accompanying the College Admissions Process | Education Bridge (Spring 2021)

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Accompanying the College Admissions Process | Education Bridge (Spring 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, in Bor, South Sudan in February 2017. Led by South Sudanese Notre Dame graduate Majak Anyieth ’17, Greenbelt Academy currently serves 450 students in grades 9-12, and in a very short time, has become one of the strongest academic schools in South Sudan. 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.

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 wants to establish a mentorship program to connect ND student mentors with Greenbelt Academy students. The goal of this program would be to guide and assist Greenbelt Academy students in applying to opportunities such as the ND Summer Scholars Program, Ashinaga Africa Initiative, Yale Young African Scholars, African Leadership Academy, among other programs. 

 

Definition of Success:

The development and implementation of a sustainable mentorship program that will assist/advise 20-30 Greenbelt Academy students in applying to 3 opportunities each on an annual basis. Systems should be implemented to make the mentorship process efficient and effective, including a database of opportunities for students and mentors to refer to, communication templates between the mentor and student, templates for individualized application schedules, as well as other materials that the DAT team deems useful. 

Meet the Team:

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Final Deliverables:

Final Presentation

Mentorship Program Framework





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Strategic Frameworks for Peacebuilding | Education Bridge (Spring 2020)

Strategic Frameworks for Peacebuilding | Education Bridge (Spring 2020)

Project Background:

Education Bridge seeks to create flourishing South Sudanese communities through education and peace building.  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 9-12. 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 peace building curriculum, building enhanced opportunities for girls, and enhancing international partnerships. Education Bridge now wants to consolidate some of this work, and help map opportunities for future development, particularly in ways that raise the profile of their work internationally as well as develop a plan for long-term sustainability. 

What does success look like? 

The development of a good model, with concrete suggestions on building networks and sustainable partnerships that will be relevant for Education Bridge, 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.

Meet the Team:

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Building Networks and Alliances to Address “Wicked Global Problems” - Latin American Leadership Academy (Fall 2019)

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Building Networks and Alliances to Address “Wicked Global Problems” - Latin American Leadership Academy (Fall 2019)

Project Background:

Latin American Leadership Academy (LALA) seeks to promote sustainable economic development and strengthen democratic governance in Latin America by developing a new generation of leaders. LALA creates international and socioeconomically diverse cohorts of the most promising graduating high school students who have demonstrated an unshakeable commitment to social change. LALA is launching leadership boot camps throughout Latin America to create local hubs of social impact and find values-aligned youth. In the near future, LALA hopes to open an eighteen-month program, which blends entrepreneurial leadership, a liberal arts education, and social and emotional learning. The program connects participants to mentors, resources, and opportunities, and LALA envisions a diverse continental ecosystem that collaborates across differences to bring shared prosperity to Latin America.

Definition of Opportunity:

Silos are the bane of systemic change. A shared fear among policymakers, community organizers, and entrepreneurs alike is that all their hard work adds up to nothing due to missed opportunities for networks and alliances. As LALA’s visibility grows in Latin America, so too does our responsibility to support, respond to, and collaborate with changemakers across the region who are addressing its most seemingly intractable issues -- “wicked problems.” After two successful years of boot camps and a gap year academy on the horizon, LALA receives proposals for partnerships with organizations across the continent every day. Our vision is to become the region’s flagship leadership organization by making strategic alliances with institutions that are doing similar work. However, we need a framework that would help us systematically find these organizations and negotiate partnerships that are both mutually beneficial and valuable to the region.

Initial Steps:

We need a systematic strategy to identify specific issues and to identify and classify programs and organizations in Latin America that intersect with our issue areas in the countries that we serve and identify the young people who care about them. For example, we have identified five priority areas, and a team might focus on one or multiple issues, depending on their backgrounds and interests:

Central American communities suffering drug trade violence. Eg. Tijuana, Acapulco, San Salvador, Guatemala City, Distrito Central.

Unprecedented Latin American migration crisis , including 3.4 million Venezuelans and . Mostly from Venezuela, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, and settling in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Panama, and Peru.

25% of region's urban population live in slums. Eg. Alagados, Paraisópolis, Rocinha, Comuna 13, Moravia, Nezo-Chalco-Itza, Villa El Salvador, and others.

Although 40% Indigenous and Afro-descendants remain a disproportionate share of poorest . Eg. Quechua, Aztec, Aymara, Muisca, Tairona, Mayan, Shuar, Yanomami, Kogui, Guarani, Afro-Colombians, Afro-Brazilians.

Rural poverty in Latin America has increased for the first time in a decade.. Eg. Pará, Piauí, Ceará, Bahia, Chocó, Huancavelica, San Pedro, Chiapas.

What does success look like:

Latin American Leadership Academy wants to enhance its understanding of possibilities for strong networks to combat social inequality in the region. We want to develop a network of partnerships with people and institutions that have the strongest commitments to supporting education and social change. And we are committed to bringing young people (14-18 years old) who are connected to these issue areas into our existing LALA network of 450+ alumni. These issue areas are supported by many organizations from across the globe and we want to map the outreach and partnerships that will allow young people to access our leadership development opportunities more readily. From this exploration of best practices, we would like to launch strategies to nurture, thicken, and enhance the connections in our Latin American ecosystem. Broadly speaking, this team hopes to map successful examples of network building in support of social impact initiatives that might serve as models to help improve LALA’s decision-making and better inform our network building aspirations.

Meet the Team:

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

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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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 Improving Opportunities for Girl's Education in Nigeria - Girl Child Concerns (Spring 2018)

Improving Opportunities for Girl's Education in Nigeria - Girl Child Concerns (Spring 2018)

Client Profile

Girl Child Concerns (GCC) is a Nigerian Non-Governmental Organization, established in 2000, dedicated to improving the lives of youth, particularly of girls, through improved education opportunities while ensuring availability of board-based education for all young people.  Through a comprehensive approach, GCC provides scholarship opportunities that not only offer formal education but also help equip girls with life skills. In addition to attending school, every GCC scholarship student attends an annual skills development retreat for four days to foster inspiration and motivation within the girls, as well as develop personal relationships. These life skills workshops encourage the girls to build an agenda on what they want to learn (for example, the strategies for passing exams, or addressing concerns about early marriage, teenage pregnancy, and more).  Scholarship recipients also commit to give back by committing  to help at least five other children, as well as to participate in a legislative education campaign that involves getting girls to share their experience and speak directly to lawmakers.    

Definition of Problem 

Girls’ education is disfavored in many communities in Nigeria due to cultural perceptions, and compared to boys, girls have an extremely high dropout rate. Without education, girls often end up in poverty, dependency, and early marriage.  In addition, the community is robbed of the skills and talents these girls would have contributed.  There are many reasons for these numbers, including cultures that undermine the importance of girls’ education; conflict in the country, in particular in areas long held by Boko Haram that have forbidden girls from attending school; perceptions of gender roles among girls and in the general community; poverty; and forced child marriage. 

Initial Steps and Options:


We will first review challenges to girls’ education in Africa, and then put this research in the context of Nigeria (through an earlier DAT project, there is excellent background information on promoting girls’ education in South Sudan, and the team will access to the individuals leading this initiative).  We will then host various interviews with our partners at the GCC, staff at the Keough School, and various experts of the Nigerian school community.   

Definition of Success

 In the end, GCC would like contextualized recommendations on how GCC can attract, maintain and successfully engage girls’ students in school and build opportunities for their futures in line with best practices globally, learning from the interviews and dialogue with those who know the context as well.
 
 

Development Team