Virtual Internship Opportunity for Undergraduate Students
During the summer of 2021, Team4Tech partnered with Middlebury College, University of California at Davis, and Dartmouth College to provide a unique and impactful virtual summer internship for students interested in ed tech. The internship cohort included 15 students who worked with three of our nonprofit partners: the Gashora Girls Academy of Science and Technology in Rwanda, Centre for Youth and Development in Malawi, and Tanzania Education Corps.
African NPO Partners Innovate a Brighter Future for their Students
The Gashora Girls Academy of Science and Technology (GGAST) is a boarding school for 270 girls located in the Gashora Sector of Rwanda. Their vision is for their students to become inspired young leaders filled with confidence, a love of learning, and a sense of economic empowerment to strengthen their communities and foster Rwanda’s growth. Team4Tech’s university interns worked on two different projects with GGAST: they mentored groups of Gashora students working on their science and technology-focused capstone projects, many of which aimed to tackle social issues; and they also mentored rising seniors on the college search, selection, and application process.
The Centre for Youth and Development (CYD) in Malawi leverages the talent and potential of young people by providing them access to ICT to enable innovation and development. They collect used and refurbished computers with preloaded educational software and install them in schools. They also train teachers on how to integrate the technology into their classrooms to expand their impact. Team4Tech’s university interns collaborated with CYD staff and teachers from CYD’s partner schools to research and create a training manual for teachers; evaluate the current training manual and feedback from teachers.
Tanzania Education Corps (TEC) supports over 600 students at Tumaini Junior School and Tumaini Senior Secondary School. In order for students to receive an enriched education, additional classes are offered in subjects outside of the government curriculum. TEC has recruited teachers to design and teach Project Based Learning, technology, and computer programming courses. Team4Tech interns participated in the mentoring of 20 Tumaini Secondary School Students interested in learning more about website and game development, careers in technology, and promotion of girls in STEM. They also researched the most suitable LMS and SIS platforms that matched the needs of TEC pupils and teachers and created reports on their final recommendations.
Learning through Leadership Training and Collaboration
Team4Tech’s Program Directors led the interns through our leadership development curriculum, which they developed to introduce and give structured opportunities to practice five key leadership capabilities that our tech company partners have identified as being critical for their employees to thrive: customer-centric innovation, communication and collaboration, decision-making amidst ambiguity, growth mindset, and DEI. In addition, we brought in guest speakers every week to provide cultural context and greater personal connection to the work and solutions that the interns were working to develop.
The overall impact produced by the interns for our nonprofit partners was significant, and the challenging professional experience – the first for many of the interns – was an important personal development opportunity.
Get Involved with Team4Tech and Our Partners
Interested in learning more about Team4Tech’s recent projects with African NPOs and more projects with student interns?
You can learn about past volunteer experiences and how they developed leadership skills and created social impact on LinkedIn. Don’t forget to sign up for the Team4Tech mailing list to stay informed about new corporate social impact projects and how you can support the global edtech mission of Team4Tech.