Rusalia (Spring 2021)

Project Background:

The Rusalia Resource Foundation (RRF) is a registered non-profit legal entity operating in Kisumu, Kenya with a parallel non-profit organization located in South Bend, Indiana.  Founded by Dr. Juliana Otieno, a Kenyan Pediatrician who was in the 2019-2020 academic year Inspired Leadership Program at Notre Dame, RRF works to empower girls in Western Kenyan by providing full high school tuition scholarships and mentorship opportunities, with a special focus on life skills education. As a result of the Foundation’s provided guidance and study, Rusalia Scholars are expected to be “college-ready” and learn the value of education, personal strength, independence, life skills, and service to the community. The project anticipates helping girls develop improved life skills, including to be able to handle social challenges and conflicts in an environment where they are independent of parental guidance. In addition, the program works to improve girls’ knowledge and skills on nutrition and overall healthy development.

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Opportunity:

The DAT will help develop a new college-ready program for the girls in their RRF mentorship program. The new program will have four objectives: 1) To engage Rusalia scholars to make them more prepared for university/ college education. 2) To develop skills of college-ready girls on how to relate in society 3) To impart life skills to the girls for college life and beyond. 4) To develop empowered girls and leaders in society.

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Definition of Success:

The DAT will help RFF design a skills-building pathway that will help ensure that 100% of the girls in the program will enroll in university/college for further education/training, and have the skills necessary to be successful in their new environment. We look forward to inspiring and concrete examples of the best programs globally for providing expanded mentoring and development opportunities for girls that might inform the new programs for girls that we are developing. We hope to take specific lessons from these international experiences and build them into our own programming.

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Meet the Team:

Final Deliverables:

DAT Final Presentation by Joseph Drey on Scribd

Self-Confidence Activity Guide

Discussion Activity Guide

Student Panel Guide

ITESM (Spring 2021)

Project Background:

Since its founding in 1943, Monterrey Tech has quickly become one of the most prestigious universities in Latin America.  With 36 campuses in Mexico, the Tech has stood out for training leaders through quality education, research and innovative educational models. In August 2019, as an initiative by the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and the School of Government and Public Transformation, the Initiative for the Institute of Global Health Equity (IESG in Spanish) emerged. As the first global health institute in Mexico, it seeks to be a leader in training and education of change agents, through research, innovation and knowledge translation, addressing the health inequities in Mexico and the world, based on the belief that health is a fundamental human right.

The Institute of Global Health Equity aspires to partner and work with leading local, national,and global organizations, including Partners In Health (PIH) and its sister organization in Mexico, Compañeros en Salud (CES).  PIH has created an organization to work with community members and university students called PIH Engage to help build a global movement for the right to health,  as well as recruit, train, and equip dedicated teams of volunteer community leaders who mobilize their communities in the fight for health equity. 

The IGHE is launching the first PIH Engage community outside of the United States, and already 15-20 Monterrey Tech students (most medical school students) from Guadalajara, Monterrey and Mexico City have indicated an interest in working together with PIH and CES as “CES Embajadores” (CES Ambassadors) in community building, fundraising, and advocacy on issues of health equity and social justice.

Opportunity:

IGHE is interested in partnering with this DAT and CES Embajadores to explore building new skills and capacities for advocacy on critical health care issues in Mexico. While PIH has built out PIH Engage Advocacy Resources resources in the US, there is nothing similar in Mexico. Our hope is to build these advocacy resources and capacity, sensitive to and adapted for the Mexican context.

 

Definition of Success:

Create and expand significantly the capacity of a student-led force for positively influencing health and equity policy in meaningful ways in Mexico. At the end of this collaboration we would like to have a solid and replicable framework for the rest of the teams that will emerge in the future, with strategies designed and adapted to the Mexican context.

Meet the Team:

Final Deliverables:

Advocacy Manuel

Fundraising Guide

Jumbam Family Foundation (Spring 2021)

Project Background:

The Jumbam Family Foundation (JFF) is a Cameroon-based non-governmental organization that aims to build peace in Cameroon and support communities affected by the Anglophone crisis primarily through women and youth empowerment, education, and healthcare. Recently co-founded by Desmond Jumbam ‘16 and his mother Seh Rebecca Jumbam, JFF emerged out of a personal tragedy and our determination to transform this tragedy into a lasting impact and restore hope for victims of the crisis. Our organization focuses on three core areas: women empowerment, as well as providing education and healthcare services to refugees and internally displaced people from Anglophone regions of Cameroon.

Opportunity:

As a recently launched NGO, JFF is in its ideation process. Our first project which was launched in August of 2020 focused on empowering widows who had lost their husbands (and as a result many of their livelihoods) directly as a result of the crisis. With funds raised through crowdfunding, JFF provided grief counseling, psychosocial support, and small business support to widows. This first workshop helped 18 women to regain their livelihoods. Since then, most have started sustainable businesses including a small poultry and pig farm, rearing and selling of goats, clothing retail, and the production and sale of palm oil. Another similar workshop is planned for April of 2021 to support an additional 20 women. 

Definition of Success:

The Jumbam Family Foundation is delighted to partner with the University of Notre Dame DAT team to explore some evidence-based programs to help women who have been affected by political crises. Ultimately our goal is to end the Anglophone crisis and bring about peace about peace in Cameroon. 

Meet the Team:

Final Deliverables:

Final Presentation

VIEW FINAL PRESENTATION VIDEO

Final Materials for Client:

Evaluatiev Checklist

Entrepreneurship Questionnaire

Pre-Program Checklist

Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (Spring 2021)

Project Background:

In the southern Indian state of Telangana, the Telangana Social/ Tribal Welfare Residential Education Institution Societies (the “Society”), a government office dedicated to improving educational outcomes for historically marginalized students through residential education, works to advance the social and educational equity of children by offering them more effective, high-quality and holistic learning and life skills opportunities. Developing a holistic education system that meets the complex needs of these learners requires careful assessment of how both existing and potential activities align within a whole-child development approach (an approach that addresses all aspects of a child’s well-being: physical, cognitive, social and emotional). Notre Dame’s Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC), as the leading organization for this project, will match the society’s vision with the tools and supports it needs to achieve its goals, refine its processes, and sustain them into the future.

In this newly-started project (December 2020 - September 2024), the GC-DWC will support and advise key educators and members of the society, including teachers and principals, on how to develop and integrate a whole-child development framework into program activities. The GC-DWC also will strengthen the society’s capacity to adopt a whole-child development lens in programming by offering best-practice workshops as well as training on how to measure the efficacy and impact of their programs. The inclusive design of the research process strives to ensure the sustainability of project activities long after the project period.

Opportunity:

 Within the context of Project Sampoorna, there is opportunity to explore, in detail, ways in which gender impacts student retention in India and more specifically in Society Residential schools in Telangana. Early marriage often results in girls having to leave school early, and boys often drop out early to support income needs for their families. As the GC-DWC begins its work with the Society, a detailed look at how gender impacts education programming and how to improve retention rates within Residential schools throughout Project Sampoorna is essential. 

 

Definition of Success:

• Display of a collaborative relationship with the Society & the GC-DWC

• A deep understanding of gender issues in education in India, with a specific grasp of Society programming and the Project Sampoorna approach. 

• A clear & useful proposal for programming solutions to this need

Meet the Team:

Final Deliverables:

Final Presentation

Handout

Vía Educación (Spring 2021)

Project Background:

Vía Educación is a non-profit organization in Mexico seeking to improve people’s quality of life by promoting sustainable social development through education. The organization believes that every person is capable of improving their opportunities in life as well as those of their communities. The organization’s main objective is to implement best practices and share knowledge related to quality education and social transformation from an interdisciplinary and systemic perspective. It has a professional team of more than 40 collaborators in seven cities of the country, committed to equal opportunities for quality education, the development of communities and families, human rights, respect for the dignity of people and confidence in their transformation potential.  Since its beginnings, the organization has placed a strong focus on research and the evaluation of its programs. This year, the Monitoring, Learning & Evaluation team is transitioning and expanding into a laboratory of social innovation. Among other things, the lab will focus on designing innovations and generating evidence to inform and address social and educational challenges. 

Opportunity:

 Vía Educación seeks to collaborate with the DAT Team in carrying out a comparative study of the educational context and indicators in the two Mexican states of Nuevo León and Yucatán. Some of the questions to explore are:  (1) What are the challenges that the education systems in these states are facing/will face because of the school closures to prevent the spread of COVID-19? and (2) What are some actions and innovations that may help overcome these challenges? Thus, Vía Educación would like the DAT team to contribute to these by providing initial inputs to deepen the understanding of the context in such states and to have a basis to design innovations that respond to their educational needs.

 

Definition of Success:

Working with the Notre Dame DAT, Vía hopes to be inspired to design and implement new responses to the educational opportunities of the five targeted states by having a first analysis of each state and some initial ideas of forward-thinking practices worth exploring.

Meet the Team:

Final Deliverables:

Final Presentation

One-Pager

Letter Writing Guidelines

Deportes de Comunidades

Accompanying the College Admissions Process | Education Bridge (Spring 2021)

Project Background:

Education Bridge seeks to create flourishing South Sudanese communities through education and peacebuilding.  As part of this mission, Education Bridge opened its first school, Greenbelt Academy, in Bor, South Sudan in February 2017. Led by South Sudanese Notre Dame graduate Majak Anyieth ’17, Greenbelt Academy currently serves 450 students in grades 9-12, and in a very short time, has become one of the strongest academic schools in South Sudan. The Greenbelt Academy seeks to provide quality secondary education as well as to develop a generation of South Sudanese who are not only well prepared academically, but who also see themselves as peacemakers and transformational leaders.

Opportunity:

Education Bridge has worked with Notre Dame DAT teams over multiple semesters on projects related to developing a peacebuilding curriculum, building enhanced opportunities for students, and enhancing international partnerships. Education Bridge now wants to establish a mentorship program to connect ND student mentors with Greenbelt Academy students. The goal of this program would be to guide and assist Greenbelt Academy students in applying to opportunities such as the ND Summer Scholars Program, Ashinaga Africa Initiative, Yale Young African Scholars, African Leadership Academy, among other programs. 

 

Definition of Success:

The development and implementation of a sustainable mentorship program that will assist/advise 20-30 Greenbelt Academy students in applying to 3 opportunities each on an annual basis. Systems should be implemented to make the mentorship process efficient and effective, including a database of opportunities for students and mentors to refer to, communication templates between the mentor and student, templates for individualized application schedules, as well as other materials that the DAT team deems useful. 

Meet the Team:

Final Deliverables:

Final Presentation

Mentorship Program Framework