After an intense eight weeks of preparation on campus, Business on the Frontlines' Team Uganda journeyed to East Africa last spring to support the program's long-standing partner, Building Tomorrow. The national nonprofit works to unlock higher levels of literacy and numeracy for all Ugandan children through innovative community-powered learning.
Team Uganda 2024 was tasked with helping to prepare for the summer launch of Building Tomorrow's Education System Strengthening Coordinator (ESS) program, a three-year initiative for ten new employees to manage and support the organization's ESS Initiatives.
Each Building Tomorrow Fellow is a recent graduate from a Ugandan university who is deployed to rural areas of the country. There, they build relationships with local community members and encourage children who aren't enrolled in school to sign up for educational opportunities. The Fellows also recruit grassroots community education volunteers who help support area schools with special programming and were key stakeholders on Frontlines’ 2023 Team Uganda project.
Notre Dame law student Barrett Cole (JD ‘24) applied for Business on the Frontlines for the experience of working shoulder-to-shoulder with students, clients and partners with different educational backgrounds outside of a highly structured law school classroom setting. She said it was exactly the experience she needed to prepare for a career in international law.
"The Fellows are the boots on the ground, living and working out in the villages to improve educational outcomes for young people across the country," Cole observed.
Based on all three Central, Eastern and Western regions that Building Tomorrow serves, the organization envisioned that each ESS would manage and support the Fellows, deepening institutional memory and best practices for working with each community. However, they looked to Frontlines to frame the position and the ESS program's measurable objectives.
Stephen Kabele (MBA '25), a member of Team Uganda, explained, "Frontlines is a program that intentionally forces you to grapple with a bigger problem than you can ever fully answer." He was initially overwhelmed by how, in just one semester, the team could contribute to answering the underlying question that Building Tomorrow is constantly asking:
"How do you strengthen the education system in Uganda by essentially supporting local communities in taking on educational programming?"
Once in country, Team Uganda spent 10 days traveling more than 1,100 kilometers in a van over winding and bumpy roads to visit six districts. They held 43 meetings with government officials, educators, volunteers, clergy, and students to gather information on the ground. Kabale treasures the memory of attending Sunday Mass with Team Uganda at a local church, learning local hymns and speaking with the priests and parishioners.
"To come to a new place and expect that people you meet with will trust you enough in a short time to offer their honest feedback was a challenge," Kabele found. But due to communities’ trust in Building Tomorrow and the strong partnership with Frontlines, they were able to push ahead.
The two advisers reminded the team that their solution didn't have to be groundbreaking, rather part of making systemic change together.
The way forward took shape when the team's two advisers, John Dunbar and Rachael Emerick (MBA ‘20), reminded them that their solution had to be helpful but didn't have to be groundbreaking. What mattered was that their investment was part of making systemic change together with the work from Building Tomorrow, previous Frontlines teams and all the vital in-country stakeholders.
Ultimately, Team Uganda focused on creating tangible deliverables for Building Tomorrow, drafting a ready-made kit containing everything needed for the organization to advertise, onboard, and evaluate and mentor the new ESS manager and coordinators. Their scope of work included an extensive memo with an executive summary, a complete job description, an onboarding calendar, a scope of work document, and a 30-60-90-day plan with clear objectives for new hires to accomplish in their first quarter in the field.
"The funding for the ESS positions is made possible by a three-year grant," Cole said. "Based on our research and interviews in-country, we provided Building Tomorrow with a bird's eye view of the measurable impact the coordinators can make in the field in that period."
They worked closely with Building Tomorrow to define the structure of this position so that the nonprofit could advertise the role and begin the hiring process immediately.
Kyazze Edward, inclusive education manager for the organization, helped the team engage with Building Tomorrow's civil society stakeholders in seven rural districts to share recommendations and ask for feedback.
At the end of the semester, Team Uganda’s findings were shared via Zoom presentations with Building Tomorrow. Edwards said the recommendations helped strengthen the organization's sustainable systems for foundational literacy and numeracy interventions. "We've already assembled a Building Tomorrow team to implement these great recommendations. We recently posted the position on job boards and received more than 115 applications. We’re in the process of shortlisting 15 candidates and will be holding interviews in the next few weeks.”
Kabele participated in Frontlines as a first-year MBA student searching for "a formative experience." He explained, "There's something to be said for participating in Frontlines before even starting my first internship. I knew that I needed perspective as I thought through my future. I hope our team made a small difference that contributed to improving the big picture in Uganda."