Eric Glustrom, founder and executive director of Educate!, will discuss “Changing Lives, Transforming Communities: On Founding an African NGO,” on Tuesday, March 1, at 4:00 p.m. on Gordon Hall’s 3rd floor. The talk is sponsored by the UMass Center for Public Policy and Administration and is open to the public.
Educate!, an organization that helps to empower the youth of Uganda to create change in their own communities, has its origins in a trip Glustrom made to Africa in 2002 when he was a high school junior. Recognizing the critical educational needs of Ugandans his own age, he launched a scholarship program that supported recipients to attend high school.
Educate! has now grown to include a two-year social enterprise program that equips high school students to create financially sustainable enterprises that support the common good. Recently, the government of Uganda and the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) asked Educate! to create a social entrepreneurship curriculum that will reach 100,000 high school students throughout the country.
In this talk, Glustrom will discuss his experience founding and directing a socially progressive nonprofit in one of the world’s poorest countries, and how he developed an effective model that combines classroom experience with external mentoring, leadership development, and the creation of social enterprises.
Eric Glustrom graduated from Amherst College in 2007 with a degree in biochemistry and is also a “Do Something” award winner. For more information about Glustrom and Educate!, visit their website or view this YouTube video.