Having an Entrepreneurship programme has been an idea among Expo staff for a long time, but finally it is this year that the actual programme was launched. After choosing two partner schools in the Ejisu area and informing and selecting students, the pilot phase of the programme started in February 2016. Pilot programmes are so interestingly unique: it’s the phase where new things get tried out and adapted to become better versions, and there’s a feeling that everything is po

I am the only current expo-worker to have lived and worked in more than one region of Ghana. Last term I was based in the Volta Region, which is well known for its beautifully scenic landscape and smaller, more sparsely populated farming communities. The whole of the region resides on the eastern shore of Lake Volta, which means you're never very far from the lake for a swim or a make-shift BBQ on the beach. But the open landscape and quieter way of living is not the only thi

When you look at the staff page of Exponential Education, you see a common theme: young, passionate and skilled. The organization has a collective age span of around 7 years. That’s not much, when you consider that most organizations are powered by a diverse group – older, younger, foreign and local. Yet management positions exist, leadership models are recognized and professional development occurs. In my final term as the Director of Operations, I’ve realized that there is

Hi! My name is Julie, I'm 26 years old and I will be in Ghana to work as a Program Associate at Exponential Education. I grew up in Paris in a French-Swedish family and I have always been passionate about development issues and Africa, so after finishing high school, I moved to Burkina Faso to volunteer at an orphanage and a school. Ever since I was a child, I always had that country in my mind: when I was in primary school, a woman from an NGO active in Burkina Faso came to

Hi everyone! I'm Megan and I am about to start as one of the new program associates at Expo. I was born and raised in the wonderful state of Wisconsin, and completed my bachelors degree at St. Norbert College in Green Bay. At St. Norbert, I studied international studies with an emphasis on Africa, with a minor in sociology. During my senior year I studied abroad in Uganda for four months, so I'm excited to give West Africa a try! After St. Norbert, I moved down to Sydney, Au

As the communication manager, I had the possibility of interviewing two former JHS students, Mahamudu Fatima and Enoch Karikari, who have become two of the new tutors for Exponential Education this term. Fatima and Enoch, who are 17 and 18 years old respectively, are both in Form 2 and will be graduating in 2016. Their favorite subjects are Social science and English. They were part of the Exponential Education afterschool tutoring program in 2013, which helped them improve t

One of the things that drew me toward working with Expo was the recognition that students learn in many different ways. I come from a family of teachers*, so discussions around the family dinner table on all sides of the family often ranged from the politics of school district policies to behavior interventions for disruptive students to best practices for literacy. I always knew I was an auditory learner; I am drawn to sound and processes verbally. What I did not know was ho

This is a dispatch from my outpost in the East of Ghana, from the town Kpando in the Volta region. As the lucky Program Associate expanding our program in a new region, I’ve been scoping out the way for new programs as well as settling into a new area and culture. Kpando is a fairly small town right on the shore of Lake Volta, from which it can claim its importance as the local municipal and market trade center status. The fish and seafood sold here are delicious, and a lot i

As the first term comes to an end, its easy if not tempting to get through all the topics I had originally set out to cover. However, its times like these when it's necessary to take a step back and reflect on what the objective is and what our mission is at Exponential Education. At first, we budgeted our time around a 10-week curriculum, but between teacher strikes, demonstrations, and impromptu sports days, 10 weeks turns out to be more like 7 or 8 weeks (as if we didn't h

Next month, Expo is very excited to be hosting our very first leadership conference! This is an idea that we’ve had in the works for a very long time, and we can’t wait to see it finally come to fruition. In keeping with our goal of having a truly exponential impact, we’ve been trying to focus more and more on developing the skills and experiences that our tutors receive from our programs in exchange for all of their help. We began by doing some research into the skills that