Category: Project Summary
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Advancing Teaching and Learning at Diepsloot township in Johannesburg
On Sun Jul 26, 13 VMware trekkers said our good-byes to one another and to the students and teachers at LEAP Science and Maths School in Diepsloot, Johannesburg, South Africa. This was my first project after joining Team4Tech in April 2015, and it was life-changing.
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Learning to Develop and Expand Businesses in Brazil
After spending two weeks working with entrepreneurs in Brazil, I met 6 amazing people who each had an interesting story that inspired me. They covered a range of businesses from the most traditional (retail), to digital (fitness app developer), to the more unique (camping tent remodeling). Each had a story and dream that they believed…
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Enterprising Small Business Entrepreneurs in Brazil
A hug? Are you kidding me, a small business owner just gave me a hug. After spending two days with him covering business model canvasses, marketing fundamentals, innovation design and financial sustainability, he gave me a hug. He and I became friends, I became a coach, and he became an inspiration. He so appreciated the…
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Extending Design Thinking to Education in Vietnam
Stanford University’s d.school is considered one of the most innovative educational institutions out there, with its core philosophy of Design Thinking. As an undergraduate from Stanford’s Product Design program, I spent four years studying Design Thinking in the context of product design for both developed and developing markets. So, what does this Silicon-Valley-born methodology have to do…
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Reflections from Box’s Sameera Salari
Box is a company that prides itself on the connectedness and productivity that good technology can bring to the day-to-day lives of our users. Along with other volunteers from companies like Visa and Facebook, three Boxers were able to deliver on this vision to some of Vietnam’s most underserved citizens. Liz Tacy, Lauren Ziskie and…
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Empowering and Teaching Women to Overcome Cultural Oppression in India
Eleven Intuit volunteers came from five countries – the United States, Canada, Singapore, the United Kingdom and India – arriving at all hours of the day and night in the hardscrabble city of Ghaziabad in rural India. And they shared a common goal: To help 60 women overcome cultural oppression by teaching them the skills…
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Introducing Box Technology in South Africa
Far removed from the shipping container in the Langa Township outside of Cape Town, Team4Tech alumni, Nic Hansen and Nathan Lui, continue to support the work they started back in July. Overlooking a sea of hundreds of their Box coworkers in Los Altos, CA and live streaming to the smaller office in San Francisco, Nic…
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Building a Better Infrastructure For The Tanzania Schools
It wasn’t too long ago that I received an email from Noel Durrant (our project team leader). We got on the phone later that week to discuss the details of the trip and while this was exactly the travel experience that I’ve been longing for, there were still uncertainties of safety, financial expenses, and “Is…
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Converting a Shipping Container into a Computer Lab in South Africa
90 minutes before, I didn’t know how they would get there. Noella was delayed over an hour by someone cutting the train’s power cables. Thank goodness she arrived prepared with a lesson plan clearly outlined on paper. But what about Ani? While clearly a capable professional, was she reverting to traditional techniques under pressure? We…
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Determined to Learn
The penultimate day of the Langa Learning Center project arrived, and I could feel a growing sense of accomplishment and completion. We had come to Cape Town, South Africa to help the LEAP Science and Math Schools and the NGO Teach With Africa to create a new technology lab in the Langa township that their…
