seattle

After a 36 hour journey from Kampala to London to Paris to Seattle, I'm back! Unfortunately, my suitcase didn't make it. No word from Air France on its whereabouts... if any of you folks want souvenirs, you'd better hope it turns up...

view from my after-work run yesterday

I'm going to miss this place...

dangerously bold

Educate! founder Eric Glustrom (Amherst '07) recently won a Doritos Do

Something grant for Educate! His mug will grace 40 million bags of chips.

For the past month I've been a volunteer consultant for Educate!, an NGO run by two Amherst friends. I've been helping Educate! restructure their finance systems, redefine job roles and titles, and hire an accountant. I've loved my time here, and have been consistently impressed by the spirit and determination of the staff and the organization's commitment to exponential empowerment.

A little overview of Educate!:

Educate! has created a new model of education that capitalizes on the huge, untapped potential of youth to become the solution to the social challenges Africa faces. Educate! teaches a two year socially responsible leadership curriculum. It is not a traditional curriculum, rather one focused on the skills and experience students need to find solutions to poverty, violence, disease, and environmental degradation. The teachers are not traditional teachers, rather mentors who build powerful relationships that give youth confidence to lead change. And the classroom is the community itself, where the Educate! students start initiatives that work for the rights of all. Today, Educate! is working with 830 high-school aged youth across Uganda and developing a model of education that can be applied universally.

Through the Educate! program, high school students in Uganda, called Educate! Scholars, are empowered to start sustainable initiatives in their communities. Though a two-year social change curriculum, long-term mentoring, and alumni network, Educate! lays the foundation for students to become the next generation of socially responsible leaders.