How networks can unlock youth potential globally
A note from inHive’s new chair, Dan Keyworth Throughout my life, I have seen the awesome power of the people around us to shape our lives. Two alumni changed my life in 2000 with a scholarship, in turn made possible by others lobbying government to widen funding. Across my career I have seen transformative networks for engagement, fundraising and outcomes. Despite most young people globally not having access to strong networks today, research shows that inspiring alumni and leaders in their communities want to help and be connected. Whilst COVID-19 put up some new physical boundaries, it has also broken …
A Community Makes All the Difference
By Ján Michalko, PhD This guest blog was written by our Senior Project Ján for Education Sub-Saharan Africa (ESSA) in August 2020 at the launch of its African Scholarship Hub. Ján reflects on his doctoral fieldwork with university students in South Africa. He highlights the benefits of alumni networks for young women and men, who receive scholarships for their higher education. It was late 2016 and the calls for university fees ‘to fall’ in South Africa were entering their new peek. University students were once again organising marches and class disruptions. They were building on the discussions and changes they instigated with the Rhodes Must Fall campaign the previous year. Their goal was to shine light on the challenges that many young South Africans, especially racialized as Black/ African, faced in their quest to getting quality education, especially on tertiary levels. One of them was financial exclusion, which persisted despite the provision of national financial assistance and various bursary and scholarship schemes. …
The Year for Anti-Resolutions
*Team photo pre-COVID Sitting down in early January this year, I’ve tried to resist the urge to write my usual long list of resolutions, or at least not the way I’ve historically done it (“yoga every day!”, “no more caffeine!”) – things eminently sensible, but nonetheless unrealistic. Perhaps this is the year for the anti-resolution, where we don’t seek to be ‘complete’, but ongoing works of practice. I can’t help but feel that we’ll weather this year better if we don’t try and be too absolute. So in the spirit of this, we’re sharing four areas we’d like to continue …
NOVEMBER SPOTLIGHT SERIES: #3. PIPPA MILDRED, POLICE NOW
[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”] [et_pb_row admin_label=”row”] [et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”] At the beginning of November, we started a special month-long campaign. What makes it different from our previous blogs and stories, is that we have turned the spotlight on the work, skills and passions of our colleagues, who work at inHive’s partner organisations. These skilled project managers, team leaders and analysts from Pakistan, Rwanda and the UK are the hidden stars in our work. They are the doers, movers and shakers. They do it all: from the daily emails with alumni network leaders, to designing and delivering trainings, conducting surveys, and articulating the …
NOVEMBER SPOTLIGHT SERIES: #2. UNAZA USMAN, CARE FOUNDATION
Last week we start a special month-long campaign. What makes it different from our previous blogs and stories, is that we have turned the spotlight on the work, skills and passions of our colleagues, who work at inHive’s partner organisations. These skilled project managers, team leaders and analysts from Pakistan, Rwanda and the UK are the hidden stars in our work. They are the doers, movers and shakers. They do it all: from the daily emails with alumni network leaders, to designing and delivering trainings, conducting surveys, and articulating the strategic vision of alumni networks. They are indispensable part of …
November Spotlight Series: #1. Elie Mandela, the Mastercard Foundation.
Today we start a special month-long campaign. What makes it different from our previous blogs and stories, is that we are turning the spotlight on the work, skills and passions of our colleagues, who work at inHive’s partner organisations. These skilled project managers, team leaders and analysts from Pakistan, Rwanda and the UK are the hidden stars in our work. They are the doers, movers and shakers. They do it all: from the daily emails with alumni network leaders, to designing and delivering training, conducting surveys, and articulating the strategic vision of alumni networks. They are indispensable part of our …
Giving Options and Having Choices: How Young People Become the Focus of Alumni Committees
Written by Ján Michalko, edited by Madeleine Harris In late August the Mastercard Foundation officially launched its first alumni network committees in Ghana, Rwanda and Uganda, after several months of recruiting and onboarding young people and supporting them as they plan activities and communications campaigns. In this blog our Senior Project Lead, Ján, reflects on our experiences with putting young people at the center of the selection process and operationalizing our value commitment to being youth focused. It was close to 11 o’clock at night in California when I first met Zaharah for her interview to become one of the …
Building Alumni Networks for Kenyan Public Schools: Why it Matters
By Pauline Wanja, CEO, Future First Kenya This guest blog by Pauline wraps up the week-long series on alumni engagement in Kenya in times of COVID. Reflecting on her journey with FFK, Pauline charts out the future of the organisation and the Association of Alumni Communities as a vehicle to drive change in the country’s education system. When I joined Future First Kenya, my job description seemed straight forward: to pilot an alumni model in Kenyan schools, which was inspired by the success of a similar alumni engagement model in the UK. It was supported by a national survey …
Alumni networks are for your school too
Written by Ján Michalko In this guest blog for the British Pakistan Foundation, Ján writes about alumni networks in the UK and Pakistan and introduces our work to members of the diaspora. He suggests that the networks are not limited to schools with substantial resources like Eton College in Berkshire or Aitchison College in Lahore. In contrary, he highlights that because they represent purposefully organised relationships with a shared vision, they can be set up around most school communities. What do you think of, when you hear ‘Eton’? Eton mess? The quintessentially British dessert with cream and strawberries. The town …
The ABCs of Defining Success for Alumni Networks
By: Dr Maria Gallo, Founder and Principal of KITE – Keep in Touch Education Our guest blogger and key note speaker of our most recent global network webinar on defining success for alumni networks shares her ABCs of defining what success means for an alumni network. When I accepted the invitation by InHive to speak on defining success for alumni networks, I wondered if I had set myself up for an impossible task. The trend of alumni networks outside of traditional higher education institutions has emerged of late along with the interest in understanding what exactly makes an alumni network …

