Winners Collaborate on New Education Venture

Eric Glustrom and Ashley Shuyler are firm believers in the liberating powers of education.

For their work with Educate! and AfricAid respectively, Glustrom and Shuyler earned the top prize in this year’s Champion’s of Quality Education in Africa competition, and quickly jumped at the opportunity to combine their expertise. Now, what was once a casual business acquaintance has transformed into a strong partnership to scale and advance their ideas.

Educate! is a Uganda-based organization founded by Glustrom to equip students with the confidence and skills to start their own social change movements within the community. Through a two-year mentoring program, a growing network of support, and a rigorous curriculum, Educate! is nurturing a new generation of Ugandan leaders. 

Eric Glustrom of Educate!

Just south of Uganda in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania, AfricAid’s Teaching in Action program is introducing a more student-centered education structure by facilitating short workshops for secondary school teachers that promote critical thinking skills and more participatory teaching technique.

In 2010, AfricAid will incorporate Educate!’s winning curriculum into the launch of its new girls leadership program in Tanzania called the Kisa Project. “Kisa” means “story” in Swahili, and with this initiative, AfricAid will rally the support of families and organizations in the U.S. to help empower young women across Africa through scholarship funds and a two-year leadership program. 

Learning in an AfricAid partner school

“This is good for AfricAid because we are able to use a tried-and-true curriculum, and will not need to reinvent the wheel,” Shuyler says. “This will be good for Educate! as well, because it will allow their curriculum to reach an even greater number of students, and will allow the curriculum to be tested in another East African country.”

New ventures such as this are just the beginning of what’s possible when like-minded organizations come together on Changemakers. Introduce your initiative on one of our many platforms – enter a competition, join a Group, or start your own -- and you too could discover your next collaborator.