Webinar April 2023: College Ready Uganda Leadership Program

All right, we are gonna go ahead and get started. I always appreciate people showing up on time. Let me stop sharing for just a moment. Outstanding. So thank you all. Um, this is being recorded so you can enjoy, um, the presentation and, and really just lean in and ask a lot of questions. This is our first parent and student service project, and so I'm super excited for everybody who let your parent come with you. Well done. Um, parents who, uh, showed up, I encourage you to be part of this. So for those of you who don't know me yet, my name is Shellee Howard and I'm the founder and CEO of CollegeReady. I just spent 17 days in Uganda and it was life-changing. What was really amazing is prior to me going to Uganda, I had students who asked me if they could participate virtually. So they came up, the students, there were 17 of them who raised their hand, and we met and they put together passion projects with students all over the United States. So they had a lot of wonderful national exposure to other students. And what ended up happening is I brought a large suitcase as big as I could get and filled it with 70 pounds of passion projects that I got to hand deliver to the children of Uganda. I want that feeling for every student. And so I came up with the idea on my flight home where I wanted to help students to see their hard work come out in success. A lot of times we give and we serve and we never really get to see the fruits of our labor, and that is a shame. But at the same time, I'm grateful that I can do this for them. So as a college consultant, I absolutely believe that students serving another person helps them to figure out, do I Like people, do I not? Do I want to work in an office? Do I not? What do I want and who do I want to impact? Community service is a wonderful way for everybody to win, right? So the person the student is serving, that's a big win. They, they didn't have that before. For the student, they learn, do I like to lead or follow? Do I like numbers? Do I like social media? What do I like? And if I still don't know, I'm gonna raise my hand and try it because I have nothing to lose. These people have nothing before me. So it is a wonderful way to take the risk out of a student's mind of failure. Unfortunately, students are so competitive right now that they're afraid to fail, and I understand that. But without failure, they don't get a chance to really figure out, did I do that? What, what happened? And so the second piece of this project is going to be leadership. I did a lot of training. I was an operations manager for Procter Gamble for 8 and a half years where I hired college students. I interviewed them, I prepared them, I trained them, and I also taught them to lead. So I'm going to use a lot of the same skills from that upbringing into the world of helping students figure this out. Because what colleges are looking for is leaders. I know it seems so simple, but there's quiet leaders and there's outgoing leaders and there's natural-born leaders and then there's just leaders who need to learn the skill to lead. So this project that I'm going to be sharing with you today really comes from the fact that I help students all over the world get into the best fit academically, socially, and financially, the best college fit. And how do I do that is I help students figure that out. They're not used to doing a lot of self-analysis. They're not used to Somebody saying, can you lead this? Well, I am really excited to share tonight that I asked one of my students if she would lead this project, and after she asked her parents, of course, she said yes. And so it is with huge pride that Sky is going to lead us in this project. And we are here to create leaders. So if anybody on this call is looking for leadership, we're going to give you that opportunity. We also have a special treat tonight that Yona from the Uganda school that we are building— it's 3 in the morning his time— he will be on the call as well and he's going to share with you the impact that's being made. I personally met Yona when I was in Uganda. I shook his hand. I know exactly why he's doing what he's doing, but I don't want to steal his thunder, so I'm going to go ahead and let him do that. So tonight's agenda is pretty basic. I'm going to go ahead and open with a few slides of why this is impactful for your student. Then I'm going to turn it over to Sky. We're going to turn it over to Yona, and then we're going to come back and we're going to answer questions. So hopefully we can wrap that up in an hour, because I do know we are in the thick of preparing for APs and finals, and I value the time for the students. So let me go ahead and share a few slides, and hopefully this will get you in the right mindset of, is this the right place for you? So I'm going to share my screen. All right. Let's see. Yep, everybody can see. If you can't see, please scream out at me. Take yourself off of mute. So a few things. This is actually me about a couple of weeks ago. I got to build a school out of mud, kind of like the Three Little Pigs. I was a little scared that it wasn't going to last for very long, and that is why I've decided to lead others to help build a brick school for 150 students. You can see, um, to the left, the foundation is now— the base of it is now happening. So this project is going to help students when they apply for college. It's going to give them leadership, leadership skills, a way to make a difference in other people's lives, something to write an amazing college essay about. It will be part of their standout strategy, and they hopefully will learn to enjoy community service. Because many people never get the opportunity. So here's a little bit of information that I put together that is going to top-line what we're set to do. So the name of this group— I can't say it in Luganda yet, but I'm working on it. It's the same thing as it is in Italian because this project was started, um, with my Italian exchange student. And it is Beautiful Angel, and that is the name her and I came up with for our original project. It also can be called Teens Who Care, but ultimately I'm going to leave it up to our students to name the group. I had to do something to get the website started, so that's where we're coming from. The school is going to be built in Uganda. And like I said, Yona will give you a little bit more information on that. Now there's a few things that I want to clear the air about because I know when I talk to families they have concern about doing international projects. They have concern about their student doing something that doesn't feel right for them. And so I just want you to know you're in the right place. If you would like to see the change in another person's life, if you have a desire to become a leader, if you would like the opportunity to have a standout strategy and have an easy essay to write. Some frequently asked questions are, should I do this if I have no desire to help? No, it's not going to be helpful. It's not going to be good for you. Unless you genuinely want to help. If you're doing this just to check a box for college, it's going to be very apparent. But please know there is something for everybody in this group. So before you say no, I encourage you to stay on and listen. Will this get me into college? Not by itself, but it has helped many students Will this be a great essay topic if it's genuine and you learn and you can share? 110% yes. Why should I do this? You will find out what matters to you and your future. What are your core values and why you should do it? So those are some things I like to start the meeting. Let's talk about my why. This is me back in 2011. I took my son, my oldest right here, Ryan, to Uganda, and we served in the slums of Mathare. And why did I do it? Because my son was missing a couple of very important things. He was missing his why. He was missing what do I want to do with my future? He said he wanted to be a doctor, so I challenged him. Did you want to be a doctor for the money? Did you want to be a doctor to serve your community? So back in 2011, he gave me 2 weeks of his very busy schedule, and he ended up absolutely falling in love with serving the poorest people that I've ever met. He then went on and applied to 7 top-tier schools and got into every one of them. He had a full ride at several of them, including USC. And so Harvard picked him up and said, we want to give you the same thing USC is giving you and please come. And Harvard calls and there he goes. From Harvard, he decided that he truly wanted to go to medical school. And because he was able to graduate debt-free, he went off to UC San Diego Medical School and he is currently finishing his second year as an orthopedic surgeon at UCLA. That was my why. My second why was this young lady right here. I took her to Peru and I did that in 2015 and she attended the University of Alabama completely debt-free. She went to CBU to get her nursing degree and now she's an emergency room pediatric nurse. So you can see my why is what drives me to do this. It wasn't that I was done. Apparently I had college-ready students say, Shellee, you tell us so many amazing students' stories about your own children. We want to go. So these young people right here convinced me to take them to Argentina. It was their destination, and I organized it all for them. I am happy to say that every single one of these students got into their first choice school, many of them with a very big merit, and it changed their life forever. In 2021, my son was debating on medical school, and I took him to Oaxaca, and he got to work in this hospital and deliver his first baby. Mexico has very different, um, uh, A participant has enabled closed captioning. Oh, that's okay. Um, so in Oaxaca, my son and his friend from Harvard, both medical students, got to go and serve in a hospital there and get their— see their first baby born. It was an amazing experience for him. He's definitely not going to be an ortho or an OB-GYN, but he did fall in love with the hospital. In 2022, right after COVID, we— this is my Italian exchange student— she and I went to Budapest to serve together. And she is Bella Angelo, my beautiful angel. And like I mentioned, Uganda was life-changing for me. By participating in this project, you will receive international service hours, international leadership, The opportunity for congressional award and presidential award. Learn your core values and what really matters to you and have an easy essay to write and an opportunity to go in person with me to Uganda to meet the students that we build the school for in June of next year. So at this point, I'm going to open it up to Sky. Sky is currently a rising junior, and she and I have been brainstorming this project, and Sky will go ahead and give you some more details. Sky, you, you ready?

Yes. Okay. Hi, everybody. Just let me share my slides really quickly. Just a heads up, I am outside, so I might move inside in the middle of this, but Can you all see the presentation?

Yes.

Okay, cool. So, hello. So a little bit about me. My name is Skye, my pronouns are she/her. I am a sophomore at Orange County School of the Arts in California. I am 16, and at OSHA I am in the classical voice conservatory, which means I sing opera, which at least I think is pretty cool. So I don't know how you guys feel about it, but I definitely enjoy singing. And in my free time, I I love listening to music, especially K-pop, throwback to my Korean roots, and reading. So that's a little bit about me. So just a little bit of background information about the project. So the school that we will be building is called Green Hill School in Uganda, as Shellee mentioned earlier. And so as a little bit of background information, it was established in 2010 with 10 teachers and 350 students. We're gonna go more into this later. And then there's currently about 850 students, majority girls, and the goal is to establish 2 classrooms. Currently it's more outdoor education, as well as to provide resources for the students, such as various activities, which I will talk more about later. So, so to build these classrooms, it costs about $8,543 per classroom, which I know it sounds like a lot of money, but when you think about it, there's 30 of us here, so it's actually not as much money as you think it is. It's only about a couple hundred dollars per person, which I think is definitely doable. And these classrooms are currently being built, again, as Shellee mentioned earlier. And just to talk a little bit more about the personal needs of the students and the school and kind of just the overall mission of this project. So they need like pens, pencils, books, math sets, and especially things like backpacks so they can carry these supplies. As well as uniforms, uniforms are required by the Ugandan government, and some students are unable to afford these uniforms, which means they might not be able to go to school. And additionally to these uniforms, as they also would like shoes, 80% of students cannot afford to buy shoes. So currently they're letting students wear rubber slippers, but obviously this is not the optimal shoes that you want kids to wear, especially in terms of they have to walk everywhere. And as well as they also would like more sponsors, especially for boarding school sponsorships, as well as to provide female safety and protection as some students walk up to 3 hours to and from school starting at times such as 5 AM in the morning. And it's really dangerous for women as there is obviously there's dangers of like sexual assault as well. So that's another personal need as well as TV sets, DVD players so students can watch educational programs. And movies. And the most important need is meals, as especially these meals affect the academic performance of students. Very few students eat at school over this 9-hour school day. And obviously a lot of us— our schools provide meals for kids if they can't afford it, so it'd be really great if these students could also have the opportunity to eat as well. And then As well, so in terms of school costs for all these things, per student it costs about $32 per semester as well as $10 per meal. And then for boarding students, it costs about $125, which includes room and board as well as 4 meals a day. And unlike the American school system, it— there's— they have 3 semesters per school year, meaning that for non-boarding students it costs about $126, and then per year versus boarding students, it costs about $375 per year. And this is just to show you guys just how little money it costs to send kids to school. And I think if all of us are able to collaborate, we can raise money to help fund students so more students have access to education. And then, so, as well as besides the school and education system, they currently have a sewing program in development with the goal of sewing uniforms for other schools as a way to raise money for the school. And this is currently in development, so it's not active right now, which we'll talk more about later. And some additional information, the school does have electricity. It's very new, and it's not currently in use, but it is an option. As well as they have clean water, but it's not accessible like throughout the entire year. And medical support, there is none at the moment. Students are just sent back home if they're not feeling well, and And then transportation, the main mode of transportation is bikes. So I kind of just talked a lot about just general information just now. So basically the goal of this project is I know a lot of you probably have different passions, different things you're interested in. For me, I really love music and the environment. So the goal of this is to use, use your passions to help these kids in Africa, whether it's, for example, for me, I like music. So whether it's like creating some sort of fundraiser or concert to raise money for students, or even as Shellee mentioned before, for kids that don't donate books and other school supplies as well. So I think besides just giving you guys more information at the meeting, today's goal is to also just get to know you guys a little better and if you guys have any ideas for how to help these kids as well. I know that was really fast, but does anybody have any questions about the project? I'd be happy to explain more about that.

Okay, so I'm not sure if Yona's on here or not yet. Yona, if you're here, can you come off mute?

Oh yes, Shellee, I'm here.

Yona, 3 in the morning, talk about dedication. I am so impressed. Um, everybody, I'd like you to meet a very special man. He is the one who I first learned about this Uganda project, and so Jonah, the floor is yours. Can you maybe tell the students and their families a little bit about your why you started this and how it's all come together?

Thank you so much. I'm called Jonah Walia. I'm an attorney in Uganda. I'm a social worker and I'm a social entrepreneur. I have a family of 3 kids and a wife. Uh, so I'm a married man and I come from a very rural part of Uganda called Kaliro, Namibia, where the school is. That's where I was raised and born, and that's where I was educated from. So when I made it to university, because the part of the country I live in, not everybody makes it to college, not everybody makes it to university. It's just like 2% of the people, the students who make it to university. So I was lucky to make it to university. So when I finished university, I went back to my community and started this school with my old— with my friends in the community. We were very young by that time. Uh, I think I was about 17 years or so, and people couldn't believe that at our age we could start the school in this community. So we started the school, uh, basically because of the need. There was, there was a great need of providing students with a quality education at a very low cost. So we started this school, uh, very humbly with about $200, and, and, uh, we started up with, uh, renting everything, cutting deals For example, the structure we first had was owned by a local businessman who told us to educate two of his kids free of charge, then we can use his property. But by the end of the semester, we had 10 of his kids learning free from the school. Because remember, our community, we are Oligomasa community. Our men have very many kids and very many wives. So this guy had about 4 wives and very many kids. So he could just produce and send kids to our school because we are using his property to do our activities. So that's how we started, and we are very committed, and we are now doing so good. As my friend Sky said, We started when we had more boys in school. Girls were being sold for money, uh, property. But now we have been encouraging people to, to send the girls to school. So, Shellee Howard, we started this school basically because we didn't have too much schools in our community. We had one school in the whole sub-county, so Greenhill was the second school there. And, uh, we appreciate the support you're giving us. We appreciate Shellee Howard for bringing these young people on board, teaching them. And I'm one of the living examples of giving back to the community. As I said, when I left university, I didn't go back to the city because universities are in the cities. I came back in this rural community. We didn't have water, piped water. We don't have— we didn't have power by that time. It was just a rural place, like a forest, living in a forest. But I decided to come back and help my people in my community.

Thank you.

Wow, Yonah, thank you. Thank you so much for being here. Just listeners, he was incredibly humble. Yonah is a, he's a lawyer, so he's not just educated, he's fully educated. And I think that that's a true attribute to why he does what he does. He's an advocate for females. Yonah, how many, how many children do you have? 3?

I have 3 kids, 2 girls, 1 boy.

2 girls, 1 boy. And so he wants equal opportunity for girls and boys. And I think that that is a beautiful thing because that's not a traditional thing in Uganda. Or in Africa for that matter. So he is one of those people who are being the change that, that we wish to see. The other thing that he didn't mention that has touched me deeply is that how far these children have to go to school. So Yona, can you maybe explain for these high school students who drive a car to school, um, what The difference would be, um, what is it like for, for children in the village to have the opportunity to go to school?

Uh, I'll begin with my example. When I was doing my primary and high school, I used to walk about, uh, 3 hours to school, then 3 hours back home, just walking on foot, barefoot, no shoes. So this is basically how even some of our students are doing, because some of the students live in my village or far away from my village. So some of our students walk for about between 3 to 4 hours every morning. They wake up at 5 AM, they start walking in the dark, they start walking, they run, they rest, they run, they rest until they reach school. And, uh, they have reached school before 8 AM. So they have to wake up at around 5 or 5:30 so they can start running. Remember, because of our system here, they, they don't have— they don't have breakfast. They just wake up, wash their face, start running with their, their books on the back to school. And even in the evening after school, they walk up home. So a few kids have bicycles. I think I sent you pictures, Shelly. Like about 10, between 10 to 20 bicycles in the compound, uh, bikes in the compound. So most, most of them now are starting to, to get old bicycles so that they can come to school, but some don't have bicycles. So basically it's wake up, put your books on the back, and start running up to school.

Can you talk about what it's like for the young ladies to have to do this walk?

Of course, so difficult, uh, by, by girls, for the girls to do this. As you know, by nature, girls are very vulnerable than boys, and that's— this is why we lose most of the girls, because we may start grade 1 with about, uh, in a class, for example, with about 45 girls. By the time we reach, by the time we reach, uh, grade 7, when we have about 30 or 25 girls, that means we have lost about, we have lost about 20 girls on the way, along the way, because of the temptations they pass through. Uh, men take advantage of these girls mostly when they get to 15, 16 years, or even 14 years. They get advantage of these girls by seducing them with lifts to school, lifts to school, give them bicycle lifts to school and back from school. They give them, uh, sanitary pads, money for sanitary pads because their families can't afford sanitary pads. So if he gets a man who can be providing sanitary pads for this girl for a term, then they can easily go out for sex and he gets pregnant and we lose them. So during this morning trip to school and this moving back home at night, that's when they get— they use these girls for sex and eventually get them pregnant, and they stop, they stop studying. So what we have been— what I'm trying to do, what I've been doing the past 2 years, is to encourage the girls, if you're pregnant, give birth and come back to school. Because our parents here don't give girls a second chance. You get pregnant, you're done. You get pregnant, they send you to, to, to, to get married. This is basically another thing I can talk about. This is why we started the sewing program, so that we can provide a skill to these girls who get pregnant when they are between 14 and the 21 years, so that they can do— because after getting pregnant, they are sent out from their homes to their to their husbands. And in most cases, the husbands are also teenagers who are also below 21, so they don't have income. So we want to give them a skill, for example, for sewing, so they can go back in their homes, sit, sew for people in the community. They collect maybe at least $1 a day. $1 a day can be— can make this family to buy paraffin, because most of our people use paraffin for light. Paraffin, if you get that term. So I think Americans call it kerosene, but for us we call it paraffin here. So they can be able to buy a matchbox to light, they can be able to do these basic things. Because as we all know and may agree with me, that absolute poverty is the source of domestic violence. If this young girl asks the young man soap, for example, for 2 days when the young man can't provide soap, they can start fighting in the home. But once this young girl has a sewing machine, can provide her basic needs, can buy soap, can buy herself sanitary products, can buy herself, uh, jelly to smear on the skin, and so on and so forth. So yeah, we lose many girls, many girls, very, very, very many girls go, go. When you come You'll be passing through our communities and you'll be seeing girls having babies on their back when they are 16, 17. When you go to these social functions, you see a lot of girls, uh, missing school because they got pregnant. Thank you.

Yeah, so for all of you who, you know, are listening and thinking, how do I help? Where do I even start? That's a conversation Sky and I had. And so what we're gonna do next is in the chat I just posted, if this sounds like something that you would like to be a part of again, passion with purpose has to be your passion. So let me tell you about some of the projects that I took over to Uganda. I had students who raised money and they gave me, I think, 6 soccer balls and ball pumps. You would have thought I just brought gold. Like, these kids were so excited and so thankful. I had students who did hygiene where they volunteered to bring toothbrushes and toothpaste, and then they put together little books on, on how to do hygiene. I had another student who's interested in, in medicine, and they put together a book on malaria. How do you know what is malaria? How do you spot it? I'm— I— if I'm not talking about your project, if you're in this group, please forgive me. There were so many amazing projects. So our goal is to take what you're passionate about and fill the school with it. If you want to raise money and have your name on the school as I built a school, awesome, we can help you do that. If you are like, yeah, that's not me, um, great. I had one student, amazing opportunity, Yoga poses with yoga music. I taught yoga while I was in Uganda, and I definitely am not a yoga instructor, but these kids loved it. These opportunities are yours, and the connection with Yona and myself and Skye, we all have this vision of bringing you along, supporting you, and making sure you're getting leadership. So in the chat, you can either make it to everyone and/or you can make it just to me. It doesn't matter. But what our goal is, is after this meeting, Skye and I are going to put together committees. Each of those committees will have a president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. We know that leadership is very important for life. It's very important for your future, and colleges are really interested in leaders. We know that an international project is better than a national, that's better than a regional, that's better than a local, that's better than a school. So if your student is starting a bunch of high school clubs and spending a lot of time but not getting much impact, I would encourage them to get involved with this project so they can learn how to lead others to create change. And that is what's going to be amazing. If you don't know what you want to do or what impact you will have, that's okay. I'm here. I have helped literally hundreds of students create Passion with Purpose projects. Remember, community service is good, better, and best. All service is good, right? But is a school, a college, going to be like, wow, check out the student, they tutored?

No.

Or They fed the homeless. Mm, no. They gave water at Race for the Cure. Mm, no. Why? Because they know how easy it was to sign up and show up. The student can't write an essay about it. They can't talk about the impact that they made. But I will tell you, when I brought my son to Uganda, and we lived with a Swahili family who spoke no English. And the impact we had about teaching English at their school, and him getting the hugs and the, the tears when he left, and playing soccer with kids who had no shoes, and the smells he smelt, and the impact he made He was recognized not only by his school, but he took that project back to his school, just like I'm taking this project to you, and he was able to get Student of the Year. He was written up in two books, and he had seven full-ride offers. So when people say, are you doing this just for college? That's just a byproduct. That is not hopefully the reason why you're doing this. The reason you're doing this is because you want to be a better leader. You want to learn what do you like, what don't you like, what major you want, what career you want. All of this happens by saying yes. So that is the project as it is right now. We don't have all the answers because we don't want this to be Shellee Howard's and Yonas's project. Um, actually it can be Skye's project because she's also going to be applying for college. As far as Yona and I, we do this because this is something that we are truly passionate about, and I'm sharing it with you in hopes that you will find something that lights you up. So I'm going to ask you all at this point, feel free to come off of mute, ask questions. You can put them in chat., and I will go ahead, and if I can't answer, or if Skye can't answer, then I will answer, or Yonah will answer. But, um, that's the gist of the project. Our goal is to, um, build at least one school, if not two, um, would be wonderful, and also fill the classrooms with wonderful things that the students would be proud to call their own. Skye, do you have anything else you would like to share?

Um, not at the moment, but I mean, we're open to questions. So if anybody has questions, we'll be happy to answer.

Excellent.

Excellent.

So you asked for the 3 passions and 3 core values. Um, sorry, I am off of camera. It's okay. Uh, so, uh, do you want us to write right now about, um, about— yeah, if you know, because we're gonna start creating pods. Because if somebody's passion about music I'm gonna bring in my opera person. I'm gonna bring in my hip-hop person. I'm gonna bring in my violin person. I want to create these passion pods, and if the student doesn't know, that's okay. We just have a little bit more work to do to help them get there. But if they do know, that just gives us a jump start so we can start these leadership groups and start to teach them how to lead others. The goal of this project is not for students to do more work. That is not it. The goal is to help them understand if they can lead more people that go out and make the, the change, the world is impacted at such a high level. So that is our goal. If they can, yes. If they can't yet, we will have, um, our next meeting scheduled here shortly. We don't have it as of right now. We wanted to see what the interest was before we go ahead and schedule it again. Did that answer your question?

Yes.

Awesome.

Thank you.

When do we get to figure out our committees? That was, um, a beautiful question. Well, right now. We're action takers here. We're, we're not gonna just, uh, have you guys keep showing up. By the way, because you have shown up, this hour is something that is community service. You are brainstorming on how you are going to impact your community. So if you're a college-ready student, make sure you're capturing this because every time you are involved in preparing for this, you are getting community service hours which lead to a presidential award, which leads to a congressional award. Which leads to a lot of opportunity. Sky?

Yes.

What was your question?

Oh, the question somebody was asking about where exactly the, um, where exactly the school is located, to look up on Google Maps. I just wanted to make sure it's spelled, pronounced right first, so And so everybody would know as well.

Excellent, excellent.

Okay, uh, um, are you listening? Yes, I have some, I have some poor network. Uh, the school is, uh, the school is called Green Hill Primary School. Uh, it's located in a small town called Namuiwa. I'm going to put it in the comment section. Uh, Namuiwa in Kaliro District, Eastern Uganda. Uh, it's a very famous school and it's very known in the district by our performance and our steadiness in progress. So it's a known school. It may not be on Google Maps, but the town is on Google Maps. I'm going to put into the comment section now.

Excellent. We have somebody in the chat interested in raising money to purchase bikes and sharing info on how to maintain care for their bikes. How fun! I love that. Yona was telling me— Yona, can you come back on and tell me a little bit more about purchasing the bikes and the cost and how they're maintained and that type of thing?

Uh, I, uh, what we do— I, I want to, to thank, to appreciate the person who has stepped up to, to fundraise for this project. I'm so, so, so much appreciative for that. Uh, the bicycles we usually buy, uh, to be honest, we have so far bought 2 bicycles under this program. And the bicycles we buy are $150, $150 US dollars. And we, we, what we do when we bring the bicycle and assign it to a student, we call in their parents to come and sign a memorandum of understanding, sort of an agreement that they are going to use these bicycles for the time this student will be at Greenhill School, and they are responsible for maintaining it and return it in good shape when the students leave school. So the goal is that after the child has finished our years of school and maybe joins college or university, he has to bring back the bicycle and we pass it over to another student who lacks a bicycle. So it's a, it's a progressive program. Like when you finish school, you bring it back, you give it, or we give it to another student. That's how the program is designed at our school.

Perfect. Okay, we have some more activity. Um, let's see. My passion is music, voice. "Can I be involved?" Sky?

Yes, you can. I also love singing, as I mentioned before. I mean, as I said before, an example is like raising money through concerts and things, or even providing like instruments as well as like, or like books about how to play instruments. Those are just some ideas. So definitely, honestly, any idea can really just be implemented. So that's what the committees are for.

So yes, excellent. We will definitely have a visual and performing arts pod because we definitely have plenty of those students. Honestly, if you have a passion, we can help you create a project. That is the beauty, and you'll get to do it with students across the nation. Which gives you national exposure and opportunity to talk about in an interview or in an essay. I'm interested in design— oh my gosh, this moved. Sorry. I'm interested in designing a simple handheld sewing machine to help the young girls. Can this goal be done in the project, or will it be separate? Absolutely, Sujei. This is Awesome. Handheld sewing machines would be amazing. At these schools, they have to wear a uniform, so it's important. It's not a gift to them. They have to be able to earn their way into school or get a sponsor. So this could definitely be part of the engineering group, I could see, or part of the entrepreneurial group. Because this can be used both as a skill to learn and to take away, and it can also be used as creating a business for these young people. Definitely can be done here. Um, I'm interested in raising money to provide school supplies. How should I get started? We are going to have so many incredible opportunities. I don't want to overwhelm anybody, but I would say raise your hand, um, or put in the chat that you would like to fundraise, because we're going to be fundraising for the school, we're going to be fundraising for the different opportunities. And put directly into the chat and just put fundraising. I'm going to be leading that, so you'll be working with myself, um, and Sky. And there's so many ways we can fundraise that's not just posting something on social media. I want it to be a genuine experience, and we can get really creative, and we're even going to have a little competition to see who can raise the most money, because I think a little healthy competition is always a good thing. So that is definitely something I'd like to put in the chat. Um, let's see, I love this. Perfect. Do you— oh, here's a question for Yona. Do any shipping services deliver to your— to this area, or how do we get things to you?

Uh, thank you. Uh, things, uh, it's a little bit hard. Our system of delivery is broken here. We— it's not easy to send things from United States and they get to us. So what do we do is to— if you're shipping things, we get in touch with the company through telephone, cell contacts, or email contacts so that when things get to Kampala, they call us and we pick them. Uh, yeah, because you can only keep this— pick these things from this city. Which is, which is about 6-7 hours drive from our place to the city. So they can be picked from the city, uh, once you get a company which ships here, which sometimes it's a bit hard from, from, from America, but, uh, we shall look into it. But usually what another option usually have is to find people who are coming, who are coming from America or Canada to Uganda Then we give them an extra bag to come with, and we pick it from them when they get here. Thank you.

Outstanding. All right, we have some more questions. The other thing I want to remind you all, and I kind of breezed by it quickly, is I'm going to be going back to Uganda in June 2024, so in about a year. And whatever we can't ship, I will definitely bring more suitcases full of wonderful goodies and hand deliver them. Again, if it's something that you want to do and your parents are okay with it, I'd be happy to share how you can come with me. Um, we have an organization that is actually building the trip for us, and it is incredibly, uh, a wonderful experience. Like I said, I, I just got back. Um, my passion is baking. How could this help the school? Well, they need to eat, and so if you were able to provide, uh, recipes of resources that is inexpensive and readily available, or take it another step further, what if you were able to help them grow a garden, and then you could create recipes for the opportunity to take the vegetables in their garden and help them to eat healthy. There is not a passion that I cannot make into a project, so I love it. Just keep them coming. Great. We have some more amazing, amazing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. These are all passions people are sharing with me. You guys are so amazing. Fundraise, fundraise. Would something to help teach some robotics or computer science education be useful to the students? Sky, you want to take this one?

Sorry, could you repeat the question? I'm like in the car, so it's like Good. You're okay.

You're okay. Let me put you on. Okay. Would something to help teach some robotics and computer science education be useful to the students?

I think— I mean, this is definitely just based on my own personal knowledge. I think it can be useful, but at the same time, as I mentioned before, they— there's not that much internet access as well as like electricity to power these things. So I think maybe a compromise could be like, for example, like teaching kids how to build things about engineering rather than focusing on more of like electrically powered robotics, I think could be a good option. So I think that is definitely something we can think about. But at the end of the day, it also depends on the resources that the students have readily available.

Great answer. When I think of what that feels like to me, it could be solar-powered battery flashlights. These kids, when the sun goes down, they don't have electricity at home. So if they were able to study because you were able to engineer some kind of cool flashlight, that would be huge. So think a little bit less high-tech and more resourceful. Um, Skye and I originally were talking— she loves environmental, um, science— and so we, we were, how do we use that? Well, there's got to be a way that we can help and impact and, and provide these, these gifts and talents that you've been given It's like, what is your passion and what is your purpose? If you're passionate about, you know, computer science education, it may be through a written drawing of how one would get into computer science. It may not be an actual computer, or I don't know, maybe you could, right, get some solar, get some power, get a computer like Anything is possible, and the harder it is, the more impressive it is. I love it. I would love to be involved with sports. Goodness sakes, I will tell you, these people are crazy about soccer. That would be, uh, American soccer or European football. They will run for hours and hours and hours barefoot on rocks. To kick a soccer ball. So if you were able to come up with some type of either goalposts or a, um, some kind of, uh, competition. Um, when my son and I went to Kenya, he wanted to introduce every sport in the U.S., so we brought baseball bats, we bought tennis, we brought Um, he brought a jump rope. We brought everything we could think of, and then he explained how it was used. And so that would be wonderful, and I would encourage you to stay with that, and we'll get you into a sports pod. Um, let's see what she's been doing for some other classes. Fundraise through your daughter's school. Love it, love it, love it. I'm interested in making shoes available to each student at the school. I'm not sure how to do this and would need help, but how many pairs would be needed, um, uh, are needed per student per school? They would be happy to have one pair of shoes. That would be an incredible gift. I started down this path when I came home from Kenya, and unfortunately, to ship shoes is breathtaking expensive. So my encouragement and, and my support in helping you do this is we could either teach people how to make shoes, show, sew leather together, right? Like literally make shoes, or fundraise where Yona can go to a local shoemaker and order shoes. So therefore He helps the shoemaker and he helps the students. And that is the thing we have to remember. We're not coming in to save the world. We're coming in to help provide resources. So my goal when I do this is always not just throw money at them, but it's give them the resources to be self-sustainable. Skye, we talked about this when we were brainstorming. Can you maybe share your thoughts on this process?

In terms of the whole self-sustainability?

Yes.

So obviously the end goal of this project is to ensure that all the resources we provide the students is self-sustainable, meaning that yes, we can continue donating shoes and donating other things and fundraising and providing resources. But at the end of the day, our goal is to have the school and the students be able to sustain this after we go to college, or after we decide that we do not want to participate in this project anymore, for example. So I think an example of self-sustainability is like how Shellee mentioned, like helping kids create their own shoes, or creating revenue for the school by the students themselves. That way they can take the resources that we provided and be able to sustain that for a longer period of time.

Outstanding. Sky was very passionate about this when I first brought this to her, because the worry is, right, we give them a bike and the bike breaks. Now what? We need to teach somebody to be the bike fixer or the tire patcher. So remember, think big, think visionary. And then we'll be able to get down to the details. We don't want to start at the details because we may miss the bigger vision. Um, let's see. We're not ready to make a commitment today, but we need more time to figure out how we feel about this. Is this something we can connect later on with a group and/or bring some school friends on with me? Absolutely. I will tell you, it's always available and you're always welcome to join it. I and Skye have committed to doing this for a year. That is our commitment. What I will tell you is, if you get on at the beginning in the visionary stage, your essay is going to be more genuine. Your commitment to your group is going to be more natural. Coming into a group once it starts is a little bit more challenging, but it doesn't mean it's not possible. I would encourage you to give it some thought. We don't want this just to be another thing you have to do. Our goal is for this to be something you can't wait to do. Your mind starts spinning thinking, This is my passion. This is my core value. You know, when I look at some of the passions and the core values that you all have put on here, it makes me smile because you do know what you love to do. The challenge is, how do you lead another person to teach it, to build it, to grow it, to create it? That is what this project's about. This is not just sign up and do something somebody else created. That is not the goal. The goal is to help you figure out how to live your best and greatest self, which is going to help you pick your major and your career and find a good fit for a college. Um, these are so good. Let's see, I'm going to keep going. Um, do you think it would be possible to provide running shoes for the children? I'm not sure how that would with sizing. I love this one. You know why it's so fun for me and a big smile is when I first took my son to Uganda, children were wearing their parents' dress shoes to school just to have shoes on their feet. So they don't care about them fitting. They are so happy to have some kind of protection on their feet. So basically we could get somebody to figure out the statistics of the average size shoe, or we can have somebody collect that data. Remember, we— Yona is our, our person at the school, so we don't have to guess this. He could figure that out for us, and absolutely they would love— how fun would it be if you were able to go to Nike and say, Nike, we need you to, to give shoes to all these children in Uganda, and they said yes. How cool would that be? That's the kind of vision I want you all to be thinking. Don't think small, think big, because that's what it takes to get into the top-tier schools. The better your vision, the better your service, the better your passions connected the more outstanding this project's going to be for you. Okay, our school is located, so we have that. I would love for the student to have some sort of creative outlet that could also benefit them academically and give them a better chance at making it into a university. Is there any way we could step up— we could set up a creative writing program at the school? Yona, you still there?

Oh, yes, I am.

Do you want me to repeat?

Yes, yes. Can you maybe rephrase the question?

Yes.

The student has a great idea, and they would like to know, um, let's see, I would love the students to have some sort of creative outlet that could also benefit them academically and give them a better chance at making it into a university. Is there any way we could set up a creative writing program at your school?

Ah, yes, yes, yes. That's, that's a very good idea, and it's very much possible, uh, to do. Because remember, we learn English, English lessons, uh, and writing and so on and so forth. So this can also be used to encourage our kids to learn more of writing English because English is our national language. So maybe we can maybe think of something like a pen pal program. Maybe they write to these friends in America, then you take back the letters, then we find somebody brings back the letters so that we— you can correct them. So we can build something on that as we go on.

Wonderful.

They're very open. They want to learn. They want to grow. Um, here's a wonderful question. We're definitely very much interested in getting involved, just don't know at this moment how. Will you guide us? Absolutely. If you do not know, I want you to put in the chat right now, I do not know yet, and I'm going to be leading that group with Skye, and we're going to help you to figure out what that is. That's part of this. We don't expect you to come in here knowing exactly what you want to do and how you're going to do it, and because that— you could do that on your own. We're here to support you and lead you so you can lead others. Love that. All right, um, sending over my science videos would work in this instance, right? So yes, we have the opportunity. If we were to fundraise and provide TV, DVD, computer, we could send them instructional videos. They can log into YouTube and they can learn by you. So this would be a wonderful opportunity to do that. My passion is research. How can I help? Oh, this could go so many great ways. Sky, you got any ideas?

Yeah. Okay, there.

Okay, I'm unmuted.

So obviously, so research, you can help with whether it's about researching information or it's about logistics for the other committees, Or as well as doing research on the students' needs, data as well. Honestly, even if you wanted to research, like, history to create your own educational materials, that could work as well. So the research, depending on what else you're interested in, it's really interdisciplinary. So you can use that passion to fuel a lot of the different projects that other students have, as well as create your own. I love that.

We just talked about researching the right size shoe. It could be something as simple as that. I love it. Um, what is the— this is for you, Yona. What is the highest level of math the average student learns, if at all? Also, do they have calculators or do they need them?

Okay, thank you. I may not be in position to answer the first part of the question, like the level of math they learn, but we have a syllabus provided by the National Curriculum Development Center under the Ministry of Education. It's the government which gives us a syllabus to follow when we are teaching subjects. Uh, basically here we have 4 subjects. Maybe I could also mention this: we learn English as a subject, uh, science as a subject. Then we also learn social studies, which has the religious education in it. Then, uh, math as a subject. So those are the 4 major or core subjects we learn, but we follow the syllabus provided by the Minister of, uh, by the Minister of Education. So I think last time I was trying to get the syllabus and share with you but, uh, I only had syllabuses for a higher level. I didn't have syllabuses for our level, but I will get a copy and maybe scan and send it to you. Then when it comes to calculators, of course they need calculators. They need calculators, but calculators are expensive here, so it's a very small fraction of students who can manage to buy calculator. Like, only 2% of the students have calculator. If not 1%. So they use their— for us, we use sticks, sticks as our calculators here. Somebody comes with a bunch of sticks, so when they say maybe 50 times 3, he collects his 50 sticks and count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and then multiplies. So because they can't buy calculators, they improvise with the forest and get there some small, small sticks to use them as calculator. Yeah. Wow.

Can you imagine what life would be like if everybody had a solar calculator? Okay, think about that. That's huge. You can impact so many lives with little dollar store calculators. Like, it's quite amazing. The next one is, will martial art able to contribute to this project? Absolutely. I think every young lady needs self-defense who's riding her bike to and from school or walking to and from school. Sky, what's your thoughts on that?

Yes, for sure, Marshall. I mean, as Yona mentioned before, there— with girls, there's a lot of danger, especially walking to and from school, because walking— some students walk over 3 hours to get to and from school in the dark in the morning and at nighttime. So martial arts would be great, especially for self-defense as well as even just like a recreational activity for the students as well.

Excellent. Okay, so I've gone through all the questions in the chat, and I have noted, um, students who don't know yet, and that's okay, we're happy to help you figure that out. And for all the students who put in your passion project— passions and core values, we're going to go ahead and try our best to put you in with like-minded passionate people, and then we're going to start working on leadership skills. Um, Sky and I will put together a calendar of when we will meet, how often, um, and the timing of those. We will always record it. If possible, you want to be on the call so that way you don't miss out and you can fully contribute. So with that, I have nothing further. Sky, anything you'd like to share?

Not nothing to add, but please, if you're interested, even if you're not really sure, just let Shellee and I know, and we'll reach out with more information. So you don't need to decide today whether or not you want to participate, but we'd greatly appreciate it and we'd love your help.

Awesome.

Okay, Yona, any last thoughts before we sign off?

Uh, okay, maybe I just want to pass a vote of thanks, uh, to everyone who has attended today's meeting. Sky, thank you for taking lead into this project, and also Shellee Howard for bringing all of us together for the common good. I want to promise you that as a school, we shall not disappoint you. We shall always be grateful for what you're doing for us as a school, and I also request everyone here to make it and come to Uganda, God willing, if you are able. We are always welcome. You can come many times as you want. We are always available to receive you and to host you. Um, I thank you for the funds for, for the, the classrooms, the two classrooms you are talking about. As Kai said, that was, uh, $850, $800, $500 something per classrooms. But we are, we are, we need the foundation of two classrooms. So maybe of this, Shellee Howard advise me how I can proceed with that. But also, uh, the classroom cost, construction cost is 6,000. But remember, we added in other things like basics, teachers basics, uh, we added in the blackboards. And also please remember that this is going to be the first standard and fully finished and furnished classroom in our compound. That's why the cost went to $8,000 per classroom because we want to have the walls cemented, the floor cemented to avoid dust. It's going to be a standard classroom and the first of the kind even in our community. No school has, in our district, will have such a standard classroom. As we are putting up. So thank you so much. Uh, I am available anytime, most especially on Facebook Messenger. Uh, we, we shall always stay in touch. I want to appreciate everybody. I'm so much appreciative. I wish I saw you some— I sent you some videos and, and photos of students participating into the construction. They are so excited to leave the trees so that it can, uh, they can come into a classroom. Thank you so much. I'm always available to attend these sessions anytime you send me a link. Thank you so much.

Okay, I just put in the chat the website address is www.bellaangelo.com. I am looking for somebody to take over the website. I just put up the very basics. I am not a tech person, so we also need internal support. So if you have those gifts and talents, please put that in the chat and we would love, love, love to have your support. Our next meeting, we're going to jump into leadership and we will follow up with an email directly to you We will be sharing more photos and videos that Yonah has supplied for us, and we just thank you so much for your time. Reach out to myself. Sky, could you put your contact info into the chat in case students would like to reach you?

Of course. I put my email in the chat, so feel free to contact me or Shellee as well with any questions you might have.

Oh, Yona, can you put your contact information into the website or into the chat, please? A student has requested. And you guys have to remember, it's 3 in the morning for Yona. So it's, it's like a 12-hour difference. Our morning is their evening. And when I came back, I was jet lagged for about a week, but it was so well worth it. So I can give you, when we send out the email, I will give you Yona's contact information. Sky's contact information, and we're also going to be choosing our leadership executive board all the way from president, vice president, secretary, treasurer. Our goal is to give you leadership opportunities so you will have that experience to put on your resume, to write in your essay, to really help you to become a better leader. Thank you all very much for your time this evening, and I wish you all the very best. We'll be in touch with an email very Thank you.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.