Samantha Dahlby, Director of K–12 Education at NewBoCo, is proud to announce that she has been selected for the Reciprocal Exchange component of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders.
The Mandela Washington Fellowship, the flagship program of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), empowers young African leaders through academic coursework, leadership training, mentoring, networking, professional opportunities, and local community engagement. YALI was created in 2010 and supports young Africans as they spur economic growth and prosperity, strengthen democratic governance, and enhance peace and security across Africa. Established in 2014, the Fellowship is celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2024 and has supported nearly 6,500 Alumni from across Sub-Saharan Africa to develop their leadership skills and foster connections and collaboration with U.S. professionals.
As a Reciprocal Exchange Participant, Samantha has the unique opportunity to implement a co-designed project with Hasfa Mago of The Read to Learn Foundation in Uganda that will form lasting partnerships, expand markets and networks, and increase mutual understanding between the United States and Africa.
Samantha and Mago met during Mago’s 2023 fellowship visit to Iowa, and connected over the mutual passion for high-quality education for all students. Samantha shared details about the Tiny Techies professional development created through NewBoCo, and how teaching computational thinking can be integrated into educational settings to support other content areas such as literacy and math. Mago has created both The Book Drive Store, where she publishes books that represent many different students, and The Read to Learn Foundation, where she supports literacy and maths education across Uganda.
The pilot project in Uganda will engage over 300 educators from many different educational settings to pilot parts of the Tiny Techies program and make modifications for the different needs. Some of the teacher materials will be brought for the training, with hopes to continue this partnership and return with additional materials and training. There is a cost share opportunity for the broader community to support as many sites receiving these materials as possible for the initial visit. The materials for this pilot cost $400 per kit, and tax deductible donations to cover these costs can be made through the 501(c)(3) nonprofit, NewBoCo at https://newbo.co/donate .
The Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders is a program of the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government and administered by IREX. For more information about the Mandela Washington Fellowship, visit mandelawashingtonfellowship.org and join the conversation at #MandelaFellows.