Seni Sulyman: Andela Leads Disruption in Africa

Seni Sulyman: Andela Leads Disruption in Africa

Last week, HAEd had the honor of speaking with Seni Sulyman, a graduate of Harvard’s Business School (MBA, ‘13), to learn more about his new role as Director of Operations for Nigeria at Andela, a technology start-up that is making waves in Africa.  Andela is committed to identifying and training the next generation of tech leaders on the African continent.  Founded by Jeremy Johnson, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Christina Sass and Ian Carnevale in 2014, the company is backed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, GV (Google Ventures) and Spark Capital. Last month, Mark Zuckerberg even made an unannounced visit to Lagos to meet with Seni and the rest of the Andela team in Nigeria. Needless to say, it was an exhilarating moment for the team.

An underpinning belief at Andela is that genius and talent are equally distributed around our world.  However, access to world-class employment opportunities, like the ones that Andela provides to its developers, are not.  The team is guided by this vision, Seni shared, and hopes to assuage the jobs-skills mismatch that is currently rife across Africa. 

Share

Vidur Chopra: Understanding Education After Conflict & Displacement

Vidur Chopra: Understanding Education After Conflict & Displacement

Vidur Chopra is a current doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He previously worked at UNICEF to support practitioners in their focus on early childhood development during times of conflict and environmental disasters. His current research focuses on how youth are impacted by armed conflict and how education can play a role in post-conflict reconstruction.

Below is HAEd's special interview with Vidur Chopra.

Share

HAEd Exec Team Member in Spotlight: Nell O'Donnell, Vice President

Full Name: Eleanor Barron O'Donnell Weber (a mouthful!). I answer to any and all of those names, but most people call me Nell O'Donnell or Nell Weber. 

Degree & Graduating Year: Ed.M. in International Education Policy in 2010, and currently working on my EdD at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (hoping to graduate in 2018)

Position on HAEd: Vice President

Current Role or Job: Currently working on my doctorate in education, where I'm learning about parents' beliefs about their role in the children's education, especially during the very early (preschool) years.

Share

A Global Conversation with Harvard Alumni on Teaching and Learning for the 21st Century

On August 6th, Harvard Alumni for Education (HAEd) hosted its first worldwide online event entitled: “A Global Conversation with Harvard Alumni on Teaching and Learning for the 21st Century.” The conversation featured a panel of experts in education from the US, Singapore, Chile, India, and Mexico, led by Ford Foundation Professor of Practice in International Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Fernando M. Reimers (Ed.M. ‘84, Ed.D. ‘88).

Share

Interview with Professor Fernando Reimers and Dr. Connie Chung: Teaching and Learning for the 21st Century

To get a sneak peek into our event on August 4th about 21st century teaching and learning, Matthew Williams, a member of our executive team, spoke to Fernando Reimers, Ford Foundation Professor of Practice in International Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Dr. Connie K. Chung, Research Program Director of the Global Education Innovation Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Listen to our interview here!

Share

Anthony Jack: A New Voice for Diversity in Higher Ed

Anthony Jack: A New Voice for Diversity in Higher Ed

In 2007, The New York Times published an article entitled “Elite Colleges Open New Door to Low-Income Youths,” which featured a then graduating Amherst College senior named Anthony Abraham Jack. Sharing his story with the Times, Tony narrated his experiences as a low-income student from Miami, who was raised by a single mother earning less than $30,000 a year, and the opportunities extended to him at Amherst by their generous financial aid policies.

Fast-forward nine years later, and Tony is graduating yet again--this time, with a PhD in Sociology from Harvard University, where he was also an Associate Doctoral Fellow in the Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality & Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Thankfully, this most recent graduation does not mean that his time at Harvard is done. Tony was recently elected a Junior Fellow at the prestigious Harvard Society of Fellows. He has also accepted an offer to be an Assistant Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education where he will also serve as well as the Shutzer Assistant Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Tony’s research focuses on the experiences of low-income undergraduates and the factors that help or hinder their success and has already begun shaping national conversations around access to higher education. His research has been highlighted in The New York Times (feature and op-ed), The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, and a host of other news outlets. He is a 2015 National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellow, and the National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan named him a 2016 Emerging Diversity Scholar. In addition to these academic contributions, he has been a loving resident tutor at Mather House for the past 7 years, known amongst his students for his bellowing laugh and warm presence.

Below is HAEd’s special interview with Tony Jack.

Share

A Conversation with J.R. Thronton ’14 about his first novel, Beautiful Country

A Conversation with J.R. Thronton ’14 about his first novel, Beautiful Country

Born in London, J.R. Thornton graduated from Harvard in 2014 where he studied History, English and Chinese. As a 14-year-old, he spent a year living in Beijing studying the Chinese language and training with the Beijing junior tennis team. An internationally ranked tennis player as a junior, he later competed for the Harvard men’s team and on the professional circuit. 

Share

Life without the Internet: The new fight for the American Dream

Life without the Internet: The new fight for the American Dream

Let me start with a story.

Darriale Bradley and her family spent many nights in the parking lot of fast food restaurants, but not because of the food. It was for the Wi-Fi. For Darriale, the parking lot sitting was the only way she could do her online homework since she didn’t have a home Internet connection. Sadly, she is not the only one doing this.  

Share

Welcome to the Harvard Alumni for Education Blog!

We are excited to launch the Harvard Alumni for Education (HAEd) Shared Interest Group’s (SIG) blog.  This blog will be place where we invite leaders to share their perspectives on innovations, challenges, and opportunities in the education space.  Upcoming blog posts include a guest post written by Chike Aguh (MPA, 2013), CEO of EveryoneOn, reflections on a recent breakfast with Zipcar co-founder, Robin Chase, and an interview with Adam Seldow (EdM, 2003; EdD 2010) of Facebook on Personalized Learning.

HAEd was conceived of by a group of ten alumni in 2014 who wanted to help connect the far-reaching community of Harvard Alumni interested in, and/or working in the field of education.  You can learn more about the mission and vision of HAEd here.  In addition to supporting Harvard Clubs around the world, the Harvard Alumni Association supports the development of Shared Interest Groups, such as HAEd.  SIGs are a great way to convene and connect Harvard Alumni from across the institution’s 12 different schools around a specific focus area.

As one of HAA’s newest SIGs, we currently have over 700 members from all 12 schools, scattered across five continents.  Our activities have included organizing and co-hosting panels at incubators in Washington DC, such as one with Dean James Ryan of the Graduate School of Education; organizing happy hours for networking, such as one last month in New Haven and one earlier this month in San Francisco.  Our leadership team has also collaborated with other universities’ alumni groups, such as the Stanford Alumni Community, and has launched a professional breakfast speaker series in Washington, DC.  If you have ideas/suggestions for other events and/or programming that you would like to see, please take a few minutes to fill out the survey we designed to learn more about who you are and your interests.

We invite all Harvard Alumni, current students,faculty and staff of Harvard University and their respective spouses/partners to become a member of our SIG and contribute to the conversation.  You can do this by joining one of our six emerging chapters in the United States (Washington DC, Cambridge/Boston, New York City, San Francisco, Austin, Detroit) or by getting involved in our international chapter in East Africa.  If your city/region is not listed and you are interested in learning more about spearheading a chapter, send us an email to leadership@harvardaed.org.

On behalf of the HAEd’s leadership team, I would like to wish the best to the Class of 2016, and invite you all to continue your relationship with Harvard by becoming a member of your local Harvard Club and our SIG!

We look forward to hearing from you,

Vanessa E. Beary

HAEd Founding Member and President

Share