Building a virtual community
Written by Prerna Aswani, Project Lead at inHive, in collaboration with Mastercard Foundation Alumni Network Committee Members. This time last year, inHive and the Youth Engagement team at the Mastercard Foundation were on-boarding the pilot committees of the Mastercard Foundation’s Alumni Network in Ghana, Uganda and Rwanda. When we started the planning process early 2020, little did we know the world was about to change in a fundamental way. We found ourselves, like other organisations, having to think about what it would mean to pivot in the reality of a virtual world. A year on, and together with members of …
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 …
‘Decolonizing Wealth’: What I learnt
At inHive we always like to share what we’re reading. It’s usually articles or reports, but this month we’ve all read ‘Decolonizing Wealth’ by Edgar Villanueva, a book that explores power dynamics within the not-for-profit sector. Our Project Lead, Prerna Aswani, shares her take-aways. Reading Decolonizing Wealth, a book on face value about philanthropy and finance, was a surprisingly personal experience. Villanueva contends that colonialism is not just a thing of the past but continues through the power dynamics within our social, financial, political and economic institutions. This book has encouraged me to reflect on my own experience, what can …
inHive Launch: How Networks Work
“It is the impact of our alumni that is most important to our mission”- Alex Beard, Director of Learning and Strategy at Teach for All To celebrate the launch of inHive over the festive period, we hosted our first event with our new brand name, inviting experts from the field to demystify the thinking and process around prioritising alumni networks within their work in education. With wine and mince pies aplenty, our attendees came from across sectors, from education NGOs to consultancies and foundations, bringing with them a fantastic opportunity for each to connect with leaders from diverse backgrounds. With …
Schools are not just a tool for economic growth – they should help young people thrive
Future First Global Project Lead, Ján Michalko, looks at the importance of so-called ‘soft skills’ for young people as they enter the jobs market and how schools should do more to foster them. Country leaders want their people to be efficient and effective workers. They need people to be trained to drive economic growth and excel in the fourth industrial revolution that we are in. And so as a result, our education assessments zoom in on young people’s technical skills and we rank schools according to this specific economic worldview. But what often falls to the side-lines are our connections; …
South African Youth Organisations Establish Community of Practice
First Global has helped establish a community of practice on alumni engagement in South Africa. Cyril Ramaphosa Foundation hosted a workshop for organisations that provide scholarships for young South Africans and run programmes supporting their education, entrepreneurship and employment. Participating organisations recognised that despite the support of their programming, young people, especially those who are marginalized by their economic status and race, still face immense challenges after they graduate. So the question of how to continue support for programme alumni in a sustainable and impactful way became one of the key issues discussed at the meeting. Future First Global facilitators, …
Nearly 100 schools in Uganda to establish Alumni Networks in partnership with PEDN
Future First Global has launched a partnership with The Private Education Development Network (PEDN) that will see Alumni Networks built at nearly 100 schools across Uganda. PEDN is a non-profit organisation working to empower in and out of school youth with a range of market-led and life skills, such as financial literacy and entrepreneurship. They have a presence in 17 districts in Uganda and work with a network of 300 primary and secondary schools. The new partnership with Future First Global will see Alumni Networks initially established at 92 schools across all 17 districts. With PEDN potentially rolling the project …
Good Start: Busy Launch with HPA
Health Poverty Action, working in partnership with Future First Global, has successfully launched alumni activities at 14 schools across Rwanda. The project has established committees made up of former students in order to tackle absenteeism, lateness, financial disadvantage and other factors holding back students educational progress. Within weeks of the project launch there have already been over 20 village meetings, as well as various mentoring talks, house visits and clubs established. Impressively, financial commitments have already been made to the benefit of over 80 pupils and nearly 20 young people have been encouraged to return to school. In the coming …
Alumni Development Is Grassroots Work: Guest Blog from OurSchool Australia
Caroline Milburn, is the Director and Co-founder of OurSchool – a program helping state secondary schools build thriving alumni communities in Austrailia. Here she shares her experience of their two-year pilot program. Here in Australia there’s been a tradition of private secondary schools developing their alumni communities to benefit students. That tradition exists in the university sector too. But there’s been no such tradition in the state school sector. State secondary schools are the only high schools in Australia that are tuition free. They were founded on egalitarian principles, established by the state as secular, free and open to all. It’s …
Future First Global appoint new CEO
Future First Global has appointed Abigail Nokes as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), taking over from Kelvin Hughes who stepped down earlier this year. The appointment coincides with a broader period of growth and change at the organisation, with new appointments at board and staff level too. Abigail is the longest standing member of the Future First Global team and previously supported the development of Future First UK, where she led a team of Alumni Officers supporting hundreds of state schools and colleges across the UK. She is joined by two new members of her team. Stella McKenna, previously …
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