Experience

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  IDEA4Africa, Ltd.

  • Newton, MA, Rwanda and Uganda

  • Chief Operating Officer, International NGO

    • Jun 2016 - Jul 2020
    • Newton, MA, Rwanda and Uganda

    IDEA4Africa is a 501 c 3 organization that was founded in 2015 by Dennis Hanno. The organization builds on twenty years of work by its founding members to Inspire Development through Entrepreneurship and Action (IDEA) across East Africa. Our mission: To inspire and equip youth entrepreneurs to develop social and economic value for their communities and the world. IDEA4Africa started as a grass roots effort working with the best students from numerous high school around Rwanda in week-long seminars. During my tenure at I4A we expanded into Uganda fovusing on the need in the msny regugee csmps. Today we increase our reach, working in dozens of schools, with thousands of Rwandan students and their teachers each year as well as in numerous refugee csmps in Uganda and with women's cooperativesOur unique program is professionalizing the teaching of entrepreneurship education and provides educators with the curriculum and methodology they need to teach the next generation. Though the secondary school system in many sub-saharan aftican countries now teach basic entrepreneurship skills, students are left without the direct knowledge they need to move forward with their ideas. We are arming students and young entrepreneurs with the knowledge and skills they need to put their ideas into action, ultimately enabling them to become job creators themselves.

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  The Lewis Institute, Babson College

  • United States
  • Higher Education
  • 700 & Above Employee

  • Operations Manager of Youth Programs

    • Sep 2014 - Jun 2016

    Thanks to the generous Gates Foundation grant we created a curriculum aimed at inspiring youth from under-resourced communities to learn to think entrepreneurially and consider STEM and STEM-related fields. We worked with film production company 50 Eggs, National Council of La Raza, and TheDream.US to execute on the goal of reaching at least 20,000 youth – largely Hispanic and from under-resourced communities, with a focus on DACA or DACA-eligible students throughout the United States. Working with the film Underwater Dreams, produced by Mary Mazzio, we created a curriculum aimed at inspiring these students to consider possibilities and capabilities they might not have envisioned for themselves (irrespective of their documentation status) through Entrepreneurial Thought and Action®, and consider a STEM career as a pathway forward.

  • Babson Entrepreneurial Leadership Academy Int'l (BELA)

    • 2015 - May 2016

    In 2012 and 2013 I had the privilege of working with the best high school students from around Rwanda teaching them entrepreneurial and leadership skills. In 2015 I led program and team consisting of Babson students (undergraduate and graduate), staff and alumni, teaching in Tanzania alongside Kristen Wainwright and Rick Harriman at the Ganako School in Karatu, Using the Babson methodology of Entrepreneurial Thought and Action and using the From Ideas to Action Workbook, we taught both students and their teachers how to identify their core values, recognize problems in their communities, and fine solutions in order to create social and economic value for themselves and their communities.

  • City DIrector, Lemonade Day Boston

    • Sep 2014 - Sep 2015

    The Lemonade Day Program, a financial literacy program using the lemonade stand as the vehicle to teach the concepts of entrepreneurship and basic finances was a great success in the Boston area. After several years of hosting the program Babson decided to discontinue our role in favor of concentrating our efforts working with the Pre-College community that is more closely aligned with our core mission at the College.

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  Babson College

  • Babson College

  • Babson Executive Education, Program Manager

    • Feb 2011 - May 2014
    • Babson College

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  Brandeis University

  • United States
  • Higher Education
  • 700 & Above Employee

  • Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy

    • Sep 2008 - Dec 2010

  • Institute on Assets and Social Policy

    • Sep 2008 - Dec 2010

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  Massachusetts Horticulture Society

  • Boston, MA and Elm Bank, Wellesley

  • Buyer and Manager

    • Jan 1996 - Nov 2001
    • Boston, MA and Elm Bank, Wellesley

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  Horticulture Magazine

  • Boston, MA

  • Art Editor

    • Jun 1982 - Nov 1994
    • Boston, MA