Last month, we brought together 28 of our 33 university-level scholars for a first-of-its-kind leadership & team building symposium in northern Tanzania. The week included lessons and sharing, international guests, discovery, safari, awards & celebrations, and more.
Click here to see a video of the event.
The power of public speaking
Mastering the art of presenting oneself, one’s experiences, and one’s vision in a powerful, succinct, effective manner takes practice, practice, practice. Each of our scholars were challenged to present his/her personal, professional (internships & entrepreneurial endeavors), and university life experiences to the group at large. Our Unite teammates and international guests also took turns speaking about their passions, truths, life experiences, and ambitions.
NETWORKING & SHARING
Our Unite scholars are ultimately one another’s greatest support system and most powerful future professional network. To ensure that they know one another (they all come from distant villages, towns, and cities across Tanzania and study/work in different locations) and understand each other’s academic and professional strengths and experiences, we invited them to introduce themselves, explain their studies and areas of expertise, and share about their recent professional paid internships that were conducted over the long school summer holiday. We also discussed challenges, stressors, and lessons learned, and through that open and honest sharing, we all found comfort, camaraderie, inspiration, hope, and strength.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Our goal is to do everything possible to prepare our scholars for professional and personal success beyond the classroom. We understand that competition for employment is fierce, and one is lucky to get a chance to stand out and “wow” potential employers. These scholars must do everything possible to optimize their chances for success. To that end, we presented tutorials for creating profiles and navigating LinkedIn. We worked on goal setting, creating personal “I am” elevator pitches, and preparing answers for mock interviews. We also invited the scholars to reflect on their recent internships and share insights as to what employers want. A few highlights from that conversation:
· Employers need people who have integrity and are hardworking, trustworthy, and professional. —Aneth Seleli, a computer engineering student at Mbeya University who interned at the Tanzania Revenue Authority.
· Ask questions. Don’t be afraid to follow up if you have any confusion to avoid misunderstandings. Your team would rather you ask than make avoidable mistakes. You must have a strong work ethic, be punctual, and able to work well in a team. — Lazaro Frederick, a mechanical engineering student at Tanzania’s National Institute of Transport (NIT) who interned at Amal Steel and Gas.
· Employers are looking for confident, innovative, and creative employees who are eager to always go the extra mile. —Ephraim Thomas, a student of banking and finance at the University of Dar es Salaam who interned with The Nature Conservancy Africa.
Celebrate
Sometimes in life, we must stop and take time to celebrate our successes, no matter how large or small. Our symposium finished with a day-long safari in the Tarangire National Park. This was the first time for our scholars to experience and know first-hand their own country’s magnificent wildlife — the source of allure and draw for nearly a million international tourists each year. We divided our team, guests, and scholars between a fleet of eight safari cars and enjoyed magnificent moments together spent in the bush.
Safari in the Tarangire National Park. It was a thrilling day for all, and we were happy and honored to be with our American guests (left to right, back row) Kitty Crosby, Gillian Kohli, Maggie Barber, Helen Juarez, Tanya Murphy, Marion Mussafer & Patty Kallmeyer.
