What: The Youth Café/Georgetown University Student Engagement Program
When: 11th May 2024
Where: Ngong Hills Hotel
The Youth Cafe, in collaboration with Georgetown University Qatar, is embarking on a community engagement initiative whereby ten students from Georgetown University will be visiting Nairobi, Kenya, on May 11th, 2024.
During their stay in Nairobi, the students will immerse themselves in the complexities of social entrepreneurship, job creation, and development. The insights garnered from these meetings, exchanges, and field visit will be brought back to the classroom to enhance discussions and academic discourse.
The Youth Cafe has organized the ten students into five groups based on shared interests and industries. Additionally, they have identified five potential social entrepreneurs whose work closely aligns with these groupings. This targeted approach is intended to facilitate more pragmatic discussions and enhance student involvement. Each entrepreneur has the opportunity to conduct individual sessions with up to three students, ensuring focused and impactful interactions. The groupings are as follows:
Background
Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar
In 2005, Georgetown University brought its 200 year-old tradition of teaching excellence and cutting-edge scholarship into the Middle East, as part of the Qatar Foundation. Our campus in Qatar offers an undergraduate education in international affairs. Our students graduate with a Bachelors of Science in Foreign Service following their four-year liberal arts program focusing on international politics, culture and politics, and international economics.
The Community Engagement Program
Georgetown University was founded on a strong ethos of social justice. Our main philosophy at the School of Foreign Service is to train and build leaders and change-makers that possess and demonstrate academic and personal integrity in all endeavours.
The Community Engagement Program is an extension of our university’s philosophy. Every year, we organise an international service trip for our students, with the plain purpose of teaching them to get their hands dirty and introducing them to the work of dedicated organisations and individuals around the world. The learning that comes from these meetings, interactions and visits heads back into the classroom and enhances the discussions and academic inputs. Students in the past have visited India, Jordan, Tanzania and China, South Africa, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and the USA.
The Community Engagement Trip to Kenya – 2024
This year, we are looking to introduce our students to the complexities of social entrepreneurship, job creation, and development. Prior to the trip, our students would complete academic content relating to the history, economics, and socio-political aspects of social entrepreneurship and development. We hope to expose our students to the complex economic, social and political disparities and the different models to address various challenges in this field.
Objectives
The purpose of this excursion is to acquaint the students with committed entrepreneurs in Kenya and facilitate the extraction of knowledge from their experiences.
Expected outcomes
Anticipated outcomes include gaining an understanding of the local context, establishing networks and forging relationships with local entrepreneurs, fostering co-creation and collaboration, facilitating capacity building, generating insights, and inspiring action among the students.
Participants
The program is expected to bring together students from Georgetown University and local entrepreneurs to tackle complexities of social entrepreneurship, job creation, and development.