The Unite Passion Project, Why it Matters

Today on #GivingTuesday, The Unite Passion Project is featured on the international podcast @WORK WITH ENGAISI. Please CLICK HERE to listen to the interview between Unite Passion Project Founder Lila Wells and Tanzanian journalist Engaisi Peter. Read below the introduction by Engaisi:

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“Who do you want to be when you grow up?” This was the cute little question adults in our lives asked us when we had no idea that bills existed and that who we wanted to be would essentially mean where we would spend 40+ hours a week to earn an income to pay those bills.

Fast forward to the high school years and the question became “What do you want to do with your life?” If you grew up in East Africa you probably learned pretty quickly that the good answers were generally a pilot or a doctor or a nurse or an engineer, and, more recently, a computer specialist or a computer scientist.

So then came high school, a time to make one of the biggest decisions of our lives, and we still thought that these were the careers that we were limited to pursuing. And let’s just take a moment to think about the fact that we were seriously considering choosing these majors without having any real idea of what the careers entailed.

How limiting is this for a youngster who is full of energy and curiosity to be limited to a few career options simply because they have been seen as historically safe or and to have a high financial reward?

In today’s episode we talk about a project that is aiming straight at those preconceived notions of what a successful career is and exposing Tanzanian youths to careers beyond those few… a project that seeks to present as many career options as possible to high school students as well as providing insider perspectives on what those careers look like.

Lila Wells speaks about finding inspiration in her own process of choosing a major (at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, USA) and in establishing The Unite Passion Project, a project that is empowering high school students to take charge and determine their own career paths that are more oriented to the 21st century landscape where CHANGE IS QUEEN and THE ABILITY TO PIVOT ITS RIGHT HAND WOMAN.

Here’s Lila Wells… CLICK TO LISTEN.

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