Age
13
Country of Residence
Nigeria
Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?
On a Monday morning in school, my school in Enugu State organized a student program for us to learn about how society works, what we think as students and future leaders of tomorrow, and what we can do to help our society. Students were asked to come out and share ideas on how to improve our school community. I had the opportunity to speak up and lay out my own idea and opinion confidently. After the program, I was talking with my good friend Treasure and she told me everything she learnt from the program. Her insights were so remarkable, profound, and even better than many ideas shared on stage. I asked her, why didn't you say all these amazing ideas there? She told me she cannot, because she does not have the courage to speak up. Even though she wants to badly, she doesn't know how to do it and is scared of judgement. That broke my heart deeply. I thought to myself, what if students like her were given the opportunity and were trained and taught on how to speak up, how to lay out their ideas clearly, and how to advocate? What if we built a safe circle for them? That was my Aha moment. I realized the problem was not lack of ideas, but lack of voice training and safe space. That burning desire to turn whispered brilliant ideas into loud, confident advocacy that adults must respect birthed Youth/Teenagers Evolve Circle.
How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.
We encourage others to join our project by going round Enugu State to reach young people where they are. We are going to try to go round to secondary schools across to find teenagers and youth with brilliant ideas who are too shy to speak up. We are going to go round and host small open mic taster circles where students can feel what it is like to speak in a safe space and be listened to without judgement or interruption. We focus on quiet and introverted students who usually stay silent, showing them that our circle is welcoming for everyone. We use relatable peer storytelling, sharing our own journeys from shyness to confidence, so new students can see themselves in us. We will also run simple 60-second Speak Up challenges where students speak on one issue they care about to build courage in small steps. We are going to encourage each participant to invite two friends who are usually silent into the next circle, creating organic growth. We will also go round to engage parents, teachers, and community leaders to witness youth voice firsthand so they become champions who help more young people across Enugu State join and evolve. ASK What I am humbly seeking from Carnegie is support to move Youth/Teenagers Evolve Circle from idea to reality and to become a stronger youth leader, most importantly through mentorship and capacity building where I can learn from Carnegie.
How many people are on your team?
3
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
Our vision is a future where youth and teenagers-led civic leadership is normal, powerful, respected, and fully supported across Enugu State and Nigeria through complete circles of mentorship. Youth/Teenagers Evolve Circle is at idea stage, but our pilot is designed for deep, measurable impact in Enugu. In the next six months, we aim to train 60 teenagers and youth from at least 8 secondary schools across Enugu State, ensuring 60% girls to close the gender voice gap. We will track impact through three metrics: number of youth and teenagers comprehensively trained, number who speak on a public platform for the first time, and confidence transformation measured through before-and-after surveys and teacher observations. Beyond numbers, our impact is already starting in our hearts. We have had deep conversations with friends like Treasure who expressed overwhelming excitement for such a safe circle, many emotionally stating they have never had such opportunity and finally feel seen. Long-term, we envision a ripple effect where each graduate mentors two other shy students in their school, creating circles within circles — a full, expanding, self-replicating movement across Enugu. This builds a generation that never waits to be invited into power; they create their own full circles, advocate relentlessly for what is right, and lead real, lasting change in their communities.
Project Category
My project is a brand new / emerging idea
Project Stage
Idea (We’re hoping to get started in the future)
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
Youth/Teenagers Evolve Circle is a bold, youth-led movement igniting teenagers and youth in Enugu State to find courage, find voice, and fight for justice. We believe youth must not be voiceless spectators in decisions shaping their future. Through intensive public speaking, critical thinking, debate, and civic advocacy training, we transform shy students with brilliant ideas into confident, fearless leaders who speak boldly on real platforms, influence policy, and drive lasting change.
Project title
YOUTH/TEENAGERS EVOLVE CIRCLE (Y-TEC)
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
In Nigeria, and acutely in Enugu State, most critical conversations ABOUT youth and teenagers are held FOR them, but never WITH them. Government policies, school rules, and community decisions on education, employment, and climate are decided solely by adults while young people affected are treated as silent spectators. This dangerous gap matters profoundly because when youth are excluded, we get irrelevant policies, wasted potential, and a generation that feels powerless, voiceless, and disconnected. Many teenagers have strong, innovative solutions but suffer from crippling low confidence, zero public speaking training, fear of judgement, and no safe platform. Schools in Enugu teach them to memorize, not to advocate. Teachers shout, students listen in fear. This enforced silence kills future civic leadership, fuels youth apathy and restiveness, worsens mental health, and denies communities the energy of its largest population. Communities stagnate because freshest ideas are locked inside shy teenagers who never get a microphone. If we do not fix this now, we will keep raising generations who cannot speak truth to power, and our democracy will remain weak, exclusive, and unsustainable without authentic youth and teenagers participation in Enugu State decision-making.
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.
Over the next 6 months, we have a clear, ambitious plan to strengthen and scale Youth/Teenagers Evolve Circle from idea to measurable impact in Enugu State as a full, sustainable movement. First 3 months: Launch our pilot full circle cohort with excellence. Secure a safe, accessible, youth-friendly venue in central Enugu, finalize our comprehensive 4-week Speak Up Circle curriculum with mentors, and recruit 15 to 20 exceptional participants per cohort from 5 to 8 secondary schools in Enugu through school visits, peer networks, and teacher referrals. Build strategic partnerships with 3 local NGOs for mentorship. Months 4 to 12: Execute two more full circles to reach 90 youth and teenagers in Enugu, launch a robust alumni mentorship system where graduates each train two students in their schools, document transformative impact with videos, testimonials, and data dashboards, and seek seed funding for manuals, certificates, transport stipends, and venue costs. Create an active community and social media presence to showcase youth advocacy stories, attract Enugu schools, volunteers, donors, and develop a simple, open-source replicable toolkit so other youth across Nigeria can replicate our full circles for long-term sustainability and nationwide scale.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
Many youth programs exist in Nigeria, but Youth/Teenagers Evolve Circle is fundamentally different, disruptive, and innovative because we completely reverse traditional power dynamic and operate as a true, full, unbroken circle — not a straight line of lectures. Traditional programs operate on 'adults speak, youth listen and obey,' where young people passively take notes. Our model courageously flips it to 'youth and teenagers speak, adults listen, respect, and act' within a complete circle of equality. This reversal is radically healing in Enugu where youth are told to keep quiet. Our full circle design means everyone faces each other, sees each other, and values each other equally — no head, no tail, no superior seat. Second, most public speaking clubs stop at training for competitions and certificates. We combine intensive skills with guaranteed, immediate, real-world advocacy placement. We are a training-to-action pipeline, not a certificate club. We guarantee that within 30 days, every graduate receives a legitimate platform to speak in community-driven spaces, which no one else does. We build advocates, not just speakers. Third, we are intentionally 100% youth and teenagers-led, youth-designed, and peer-driven, not adult-led. As young people from Enugu designing for young people, we understand genuine fear, slang, and lived realities, so we create a safe, non-judgmental, full circle of trust, not a formal, intimidating classroom. We apply debate, storytelling, and civic education as practical tools for direct community advocacy and policy influence, making our solution sustainable and scalable across Enugu and Nigeria with just voice, courage, and solidarity.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
Youth/Teenagers Evolve Circle solves this by creating a practical, youth-owned advocacy lab called the Speak Up Circle — a full, unbroken circle where every voice matters — in Enugu State. It is not a lecture; it is a life-changing transformation journey running for 4 intensive Saturdays per cohort that flips classroom power. PHASE ONE, TRAIN: We will recruit 15 to 20 teenagers and youth per cohort from Enugu schools, prioritizing shy students with hidden brilliant ideas, and train them rigorously on public speaking, storytelling, critical thinking, debate, emotional intelligence, civic rights, and advocacy. We use peer learning, role-plays, storytelling games, impromptu drills, and real Enugu community scenarios, not boring theory. Students will master how to structure persuasive speeches, control fear, and argue with evidence. PHASE TWO, PRACTICE with reversed power: Each Saturday ends with our signature full circle where youth and teenagers boldly speak and invited adults — teachers, parents, leaders — listen in respectful silence without interruption. This builds unmatched confidence and validates voice. PHASE THREE, PLATFORM: We will not train and abandon them. Within 30 days, we will link graduates to influential, real-world stages where their voice creates impact — such as youth-led community dialogue sessions, peer advocacy clubs in schools, inter-school debate forums, NGO youth events, and community service projects where they can lead sensitization campaigns. We provide mentorship and peer support. In action, we turn a shy student who whispered an idea after that Monday program into a confident young leader who stands before peers and community members demanding positive change and gets adults to act. We turn ideas into action and silent students into advocate
Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?
We are 3 passionate young advocates from Enugu State united by a full circle of shared purpose. I am Founder & Lead Trainer, with passion for teenagers voice and full inclusion. Chikezie Princess leads Outreach & Welfare, finding and supporting shy students especially girls in Enugu schools, ensuring our circle remains full and no voice is left outside. Stanley Kosi is Training Coach, skilled teen debater who designs our practical curriculum and coaches confidence. We share leadership equally
