As we work to reinvent and redefine traditional secondary education, we are committed to continuous learning and sharing the lessons we learn with others in our space. Our goal is to further best practices within the youth skills conversation and use our insights and research to build a robust body of evidence that other implementers can leverage to serve youth. We believe that education should be tied directly to improved life outcomes for youth, and our Research and Development (R&D) efforts ensure we continue gathering the evidence that allows us to strengthen this link by iterating upon what works. Our obsession with impact and with making evidence- based decisions led us to create an “Experience Bar.”

Over the last ten years, we’ve been moved by the extraordinary ways our female students have broken down gender barriers and taken action to enact positive change. From young entrepreneurs and innovators to scientists, educators, and activists, Educate!’s female graduates have gone on to be changemakers in their communities.

The outbreak of coronavirus has flipped the script on schools, classrooms, and education around the world. In order to serve youth during this critical time, our skills-based model has been reimagined, and we have moved swiftly to adapt our in-school model for distance learning through radio and phone. After about seven months of implementation, we’re doubling down on our commitment to building our solutions on a foundation of data collection, turning our attention to determining how best to measure the impact of our new distance learning model.

When the coronavirus pandemic swept across the world, 190 countries closed their schools. In response, youth, teachers, governments, and social impact organizations are collaborating to support youth during this turbulent time. Educate!’s long-standing partnerships have placed us all on a team, working together to respond to the challenges 2020 has brought into young people’s lives.

Samuel is an Educate! Scholar and Student Business Club President in the Educate! Exchange in the Rwamagana district of Rwanda. Amidst school closures and lockdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Samuel set out to find ways to support his community during as well as put into practice the skills he’s acquired through the Educate! Exchange.

Women are on the front lines of the coronavirus outbreak, both in the workplace and at home. In order to keep girls learning during this time, Educate! has set out to deliver components of the student experience digitally in order to ensure that girls maintain a connection with their education while gaining critical hard and soft skills to be resilient throughout this unprecedented crisis.

As we all learn to adjust to the challenges caused by COVID-19, we continue to be inspired and encouraged by our students, who have overcome difficult challenges to become young leaders, entrepreneurs, mentors, and role models in their communities. One student who has particularly inspired us is Irene Kisakye, one of Educate!’s first Scholars and superstars in Uganda.

We believe that as an American-founded organization working in Africa, with a predominantly African staff, we have a special responsibility to speak out against the violence that has been done to people of African descent in the US.

As we all navigate new challenges in our lives and communities, we’d like to update you on Educate!'s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For nearly eighteen years the insurgence of the Lord's Resistance Army in Northern Uganda incited violence. Today, the region still grapples with high rates of poverty, low primary and secondary school enrollment rates, and underdeveloped infrastructure. In spite of this, young people in Northern Uganda and young women in particular –  like Educate! Mentor Fiona – have been driving progress and acting as agents of positive change for their communities. 

This January, Educate!’s Kenya Program Director, Diana Mwai, helped chair the “Ministerial Exchange session” at the 2020 Education World Forum – joining the largest gathering of education and skills ministers in the world. Diana leads Educate!’s programming and government engagement strategy in Kenya, bringing diverse experience and a unique perspective to this interactive panel. 

Flipping through the pages of a newspaper one morning, Adeline, a Rwandan secondary student, came across a story which instantly captivated her. The article profiled Esther Mbabazi, the first woman in Rwanda to be certified as a commercial airline pilot. Deeply inspired by Esther’s journey, Adeline soon set her sights on flight school. “Why can’t I be the second?” she wondered.

Educate! is working to create a model of education that is tied to, and directly accountable for, improved life outcomes. We invest deeply in rigorously evaluating, and then innovating and improving upon, our model to ensure that every dollar leads to the maximum impact for the youth we serve. Out of that commitment, Educate! partnered with researchers from UC Berkeley, the World Bank, and Innovations for Poverty Action to conduct a follow-up to our Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) in Uganda which measured our impact on students four years after completing the Educate! program.

This May, Educate! had the privilege of participating in an online workshop exploring the design and implementation of mentorship programs. Organized by Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE) - a coalition led by the World Bank, the workshop convened a distinguished group of global organizations to share insight and learnings around supporting the world’s young entrepreneurs.

It has been a particularly eventful summer here at Educate!, as we organized not one but two National Student Business Club Competitions in Uganda and Rwanda. The competitions brought together the brightest Clubs in each country for a day of innovation exchange, ingenuity, and of course, friendly competition.  

As we continue to celebrate ten years of the Educate! Experience, we want to highlight the dedicated staff who have allowed Educate! to reach this milestone and those who are working to prepare Educate! for its next decade of impact. Today, we are excited to spotlight Educate!’s Director of Monitoring and Evaluation, Meghan Mahoney.

Standing in the shade on the side of her grandmother’s house near Jinja, Uganda, Sarah flips through the collection of brightly colored kitenge fabric that she will soon shape into dresses, purses, and shirts. Proudly, she holds up each of her tailored pieces, grinning as she describes the intricate designs and how her ability to speak Kiswahili landed her a good deal with a fabric supplier in Tanzania. But Sarah’s path to get to where she is today — a confident young entrepreneur and provider for her family — has not been an easy one.

At Educate!, we believe that the most innovative and impactful organizations are fueled by high-growth, mission-driven teams. That’s why we’ve focused on hiring a best-in-class team, with a strong focus on East African leadership, critical to achieving meaningful impact.