ConnectED

UNICEF estimates that "264 million children and adolescents around the world do not have the opportunity to enter or complete school. They are thwarted by poverty, discrimination, armed conflict, and the effects of climate change.[1] At the national level, reform and resources are needed to improve education, which can take years to manifest.

ConnectED believes there are steps that can be taken now to serve the current cohort of youth. At the local level, there are education leaders who have the passion and desire but often lack the skills and resources. ConnectED engages these change agents to design and pilot locally driven projects that improve access, quality, and relevance of education.

Our model is scalable and replicable to any country context. More Fellows means a greater network of community changemakers, and more collaboration at the regional level working together to deliver the promise of education.

[1] See UNICEF’s education page

ConnectED aims to address the outdated curricula, poor physical infrastructure, inadequate teacher preparation and support, and inability to access modern technologies that are still barriers to learning for youth in Central America. 

Within Central America, Guatemala, for example, has one of the lowest investment rates per child/per school day, translating to insufficient educational materials and lack of infrastructure to accommodate the number of enrollees in public schools. Primary school dropout rates are over 20% and only half the population has completed primary school. One in 10 Guatemalans are illiterate and students take longer to advance through each grade level. Compounding the issue are contributing factors of poverty, geographic isolation, lack of basic needs, weak infrastructure, violence, and political instability. [1]

Systemic education change can take years and often is not connected to the realities and needs of local communities. Therefore, ConnectED identifies, develops, and supports local change agents, at the community level, who can transform the education sector – one community at a time.

[1] UNESCO Institute for Statistics SDG 4 Country Profile

The ConnectED Fellows program identifies, develops and supports local education leaders to engage their communities to design and implement projects that improve access, quality and/or relevancy of education. ConnectED supports each of its Fellows in person and remotely, utilizing appropriate information technologies so that Fellows can develop their skills in community leadership, digital literacy, project management, systems thinking, problem solving, consensus building, conflict resolution, public speaking, budgeting, coordination, and communication. Fellows receive tablets to access G-Suite cloud platform, eLearning materials, instructional videos, and open education resources that are applicable to their projects. Communication applications such as Zoom and WhatsApp are utilized to convene virtual group trainings and to support Fellows individually as they monitor, refine, and even replicate their projects. 

The Fellows work with key stakeholders (teachers, school administrators, parents, authorities, and students) to identify priority concerns, mobilize partners, and design and implement education intervention addressing digital literacy and teacher training, access to education for out of school youth, lack of school feeding programs, use of open education resources to improve academic performance, culture preservation, and more. By improving learning outcomes, Fellows make it possible for the next generation of leaders to dream without boundaries and transform their own societies.

ConnectED improves education for rural indigenous youth in Central America who have limited educational resources. Most communities depend on subsistence farming and crafts for their livelihoods and have an average population of approx. 1,200 people. In some regions, families struggle with geographic isolation, which exacerbates the difficulty of access to basic needs. 

Our work also extends to the local educators who are in dire need of support and resources to deliver quality education to their students, and to parents and community members who are dedicated to finding new innovative ways to address informal education needs outside of the school system.

Our model was co-designed in partnership with local communities to provide education leaders, who know their communities best, with the tools and resources they need to tackle pressing educational challenges. Anchored in the values of sustainability and community-driven interventions, ConnectED selects local visionaries as Fellows and equips them to be change agents. Many of the Fellows who participate are teachers, principals, school directors, and community members who share a goal of elevating the quality of education within their locale. Together, with our Fellows we engage local youth, their families, educators, and school staff to assess and prioritize education needs in their community and turn ideas into concrete actions. Fellows engage their community throughout the entire process to set goals, complete projects, and realize their own vision for improved learning. In this way, we are able to ensure education projects are rooted in local relevancy and need. Fellows are able to develop their root-cause situation analysis, problem solving, consensus building, coordination, communication, and leadership skills. After the training, ConnectED continues to provide ongoing mentorship in person and remotely.

For many Central American learners, outdated curricula, poor infrastructure, inadequate teacher preparation, and inability to access technologies are still barriers to learning. ConnectED believes that tailored, grassroots solutions in partnership with local educators is the most impactful and sustainable route to solve education challenges from the bottom-up.

Our Model enables access to quality learning in rural, low-connectivity settings. By collaborating with key community stakeholders, Fellows identify priority needs and design/implement solutions that improve education outcomes for rural indigenous youth in Central America, all of which aligns with the Solve Challenge and selected dimension.

More than 20 communities throughout Nicaragua benefited from improved education outcomes as a result of our Fellows Model. Fellows built new schools, designed new and more relevant curricula, created professional development trainings for local educators, improved technology literacy, and much more.

Our experience listening to the needs of communities and co-designing education initiatives in Nicaragua allowed us to refine our Fellows Model. We are now embarking on scaling to support local education initiatives in other communities throughout Central America, starting with a pilot in Guatemala.  

We are working with 10 Fellows from 9 Guatemalan communities to implement local solutions to education challenges and have plans to recruit another 15 Fellows this Fall. Through the Fellows Model, direct training, and partnerships, we will improve education outcomes in more than 50 communities between 2021-2025 in Guatemala. During this time we will also develop partnerships to scale in El Salvador.

The ConnectED Fellows model’s innovation is highlighted in the programs ability to:

1. Utilize modern technologies to provide leadership opportunities to aspiring local changemakers in rural locales. Providing Fellows with tablets and instruction to access the G-Suite cloud platform, eLearning materials, instructional videos via Youtube, Zoom, WhatsApp, and open education resources stimulate development and contribute to creating greater connectivity and opportunities for remote communities. In addition, the eLearning technologies allow ConnectED mentors to help Fellows prioritize their community needs, develop creative and imaginative concept designs to address community specific education challenges, and support them as they implement their education projects.

2. Facilitate peer-to-peer exchange between Fellows and communities to share innovations for improved access, quality and/or relevance of education in formal and informal education space. This builds communication and partnerships so there can be greater knowledge sharing around varied programming, needs, solutions, etc. that can support regional/national dialogue around education.

3. Develop resiliency in local communities and support bottom-up solutions. The skills the Fellows learn through the ConnectED program serve the immediate needs of the education sector in their community and have a benefit many times larger for themselves. Each Fellows’ training results in projects that impact a minimum of 100 students and one school in the first year of implementation, with benefits being cumulative each year thereafter. Local communities are given a voice and improve their resilience rather than creating dependency.

To date, more than 20 communities throughout Nicaragua and nine communities throughout Guatemala have benefited from improved education education outcomes as a result of the ConnectED Fellows Model. Fellows have built new schools, designed new and more relevant curricula, created professional development trainings for local educators, improved technology literacy, developed digital libraries, created open education resource centers and more. These projects benefited more than 3,500 students in 20 schools.

This year, ConnectED is working with 10 Fellows in 9 different communities in Guatemala, rural and semi-urban, across the Departments of Sololá, Sacatepéquez, Chimaltenango, and Quiché, with a strong indigenous representation (approx. 85% are indigenous communities). Each fellows’ training results in projects that impact an average of 100 students and one school in their first year of implementation, with benefits being cumulative each year thereafter. In 2021, we anticipate our 10 Fellows to improve education outcomes for approx. 900 students in nine communities. In 2022, as we increase our Fellow cohort, we aim to improve education outcomes for approx. 3,500 rural students in a minimum of twenty Guatemalan communities.

These annual impacts contribute to our vision for 2025 of supporting 100 Guatemalan educators to improve access, quality and relevance of education for a minimum of 20,000 youth in more than 50 communities throughout Guatemala. 

We are building this model to be scalable beyond Central America with the potential to impact the lives of over one million people. 

The strategy that we are implementing for effective M&E has three streams of information that we will bring together to assess the effectiveness and impact of the pilot program in Guatemala and develop next steps for scaling to El Salvador and beyond, as illustrated below.

Stream 1: Program evaluation: 

• Effectiveness of leadership training and mentorship
• Effectiveness of fixed structure component to ensure mission is achieved
• Approaches to adapting the model by Fellows to different communities
• Effectiveness of Partnerships with local CBOs
• The capacity of ConnectED to support the program from diversified funding streams
• The allocation of resources across the program
• Network built between fellows and organizations to leverage future benefits/impacts

Stream 2: Individual project data on impacts of access, quality and relevance:

• Indicators for improved access, quality and relevance included in Fellows individual logical framework Indicators 

Stream 3: Data specific and relevant to individual projects and communities outside of improved access, quality and relevance of education:

• Additional relevant indicators developed by Fellows/communities according to their specific project characteristics and included in their logical frameworks

Each of the above contributes to an evidence base developed around the Fellows Model that:

• Demonstrates the impact on quality,relevance and access to education of the program
• Assesses the effectiveness of the program
• Enables refinements to the way ConnectED operates in supporting implementation of the program.

ConnectED has 1 full-time staff (CEO), 1 part-time staff (Co-Founder/COO) and five + consultants across the US and Central America who support programming and accounting. We have plans to hire a second FT staff in Guatemala this year. Graduate students provide support in data collection and monitoring and evaluation.

Isa, our Chief Executive Officer, leads our Nicaragua- and Guatemala-based operations and works directly with Fellows and community partners. She facilitates in-person and virtual training workshops and provides mentorship to our Fellows. She has over two decades’ experience in stakeholder and community engagement, corporate social responsibility, and social impact strategies across Latin America. Isa has a Master’s degree in International Affairs from the Ohio University Center for International Students and a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the Central American University in Nicaragua.

Based in the US, Sooni, our COO and Co-Founder, supports Isa in strategy and leads financial management and operations. Her areas of expertise include educational programming, nonprofit administration, and community development. Since 2014, she has developing/implementing ConnectED’s program. Prior to ConnectED, she worked with under-served farming communities in the Bay Area, Asia and Africa in her roles at the Resource Conservation District and the Postharvest Technology Research Center. She graduated with a Master’s degree in Ecology and International Development at the University of California, Davis.  

The rest of ConnectED’s team members have diverse specializations, including research, program design, strategic planning, resource development, storytelling, social media, and fundraising.

ConnectED is a team of individuals who are deeply and equally passionate about creating an inclusive and equitable lifelong learning environment for all. Our core team brings in 20 years of combined experience in international education, community development, and project management.

Diverse, equitable and inclusive leadership is embodied in all of the work that we do as an organization whether reflected in our programming or organization structure etc. We believe local leaders know their communities and regions best and should lead and be involved in the development, piloting and scaling of local solutions. Some examples include:

• We are committed to having our primary Chief Executive Officer leadership role be from and based in Central America. Currently, this role belongs to Isa LaPorte who resides in Managua, Nicaragua.
• We are committed to a diversified board that represents the region(s) where we work. Currently two of our five members are from Nicaragua and Guatemala and we have plans to recruit two more from Central America this year.
• We are committed to keeping a small staff in the USA and building out our local teams to ensure as much resources as possible are spent in the locations we seek to serve. We always prioritize hiring local consultants/support within the Countries where we work and plan to hire a new FT Country Coordinator in Guatemala this year.
• We support local community leaders to engage their communities, that they know best, to improve education outcomes. Our model ensures decision-makers (Fellows) are rooted in the local context, culture, politics etc. so that solutions are as relevant as possible.

We are applying to the Solve Challenge because we firmly believe our solution is scalable, sustainable and game-changing. Solve will enable us to scale through funding resources, provide us with greater visibility and new partnerships within the education/development sector, both locally and internationally. It will also change the situation for thousands through the capacity we build in our fellow communities to make the difference to someone’s choice to migrate from their country or to stay and employ their skills. 

ConnectED is a still a young organization that can benefit from the guidance experts at MIT Solve and other experts behind the Solve Challenge. We will enhance our organizational capacity, and with MIT Solve, employ learning technologies to make the most of our investments in our fellows. The funding and resources we can gain from this opportunity can also help us improve our model, adapt it to different Central American contexts, and further refine it to impact millions in other locales like Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. It will help us with our immediate goal to improve access, quality, and relevance of education by building the capacity of 100 local education leaders in 50+ communities, and impacting 20,000 learners by 2025.

Financial - ConnectED and The Fellows Model are in an ideal place to partner with the right investors who share our values of bottom-up philanthropy, supporting local leadership, collaboration, innovation and scale. We have the opportunity to leverage a limited investment fund over the next three years to leverage investor partnerships to take ConnectED to the next level to benefit millions of youth in Central America and beyond. The time is now and we cannot do it without the right partners.

Public Relations - ConnectED taps into underutilized resources (local leaders) to engage their communities to improve education outcomes. Every fellow/project/community is unique and their untold stories hold the power to catalyze donors, investors and critical support networks. Through enhances communication strategy, branding, visual storytelling and digital campaigns ConnectED can elevate its position as an public NGO/incubator for local leaders with public/private sector.

Technology - Technology is a critical aspect of our Fellows Model and the majority of our Fellows interventions. We aim to 1) develop an open source platform that documents the innovative solutions our Fellows have piloted so they can be further scaled 2) develop a mobile app and digitize all of our tools/resources/training for Fellows to ensure the virtual platforms/process is as streamlined as possible and 3) create a network of tech support to support our Fellows in the design, launch and scaling of their individual tech education solutions (apps, digital platforms appropriate for hybrid classes/school and community needs, OER resources, podcasts, audiovisuals etc.). 

At this stage in our development, we would like to partner with incubators, funders, NGOs, Universities and connect with MIT initiatives and other Solve Members to help in the execution of our model. Specifically, we would love connections to:

- Relevant Tech/Corporations in the Bay Area interested to innovate and scale our community-driven model that utilizes technology and human centered design including but not limited to: Facebook, CISCO, Salesforce, Sabrato, Dropbox etc.

- Private Foundations to further prove and scale the Fellows Model at large including but not limited to: Google.org, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Obama Foundation, the Draper Richard Kaplan Foundation, Ashoka Fellows and the Skoll Foundation.

- Government bodies that can benefit from our Fellows/networks to inform how their programming can be more impactful in addressing education and root causes of migration in rural Central American communities including but not limited to: UNICEF, UNESCO, UNDP, and the Biden Administration (Kamala Harris).

More than 60% of our Fellows are female community leaders who are dedicated to improving education opportunities for youth in their communities. As a Fellow these women are supported to develop their skills as leaders in their community, in tech literacy and to engage their communities (students, parents and teachers) to assess education challenges and design, pilot and scale community driven initiatives that improve access, quality and relevance of education for local youth. Through the Fellowship process these women gain confidence, social capital and leadership positioning within their community. Through their piloted projects they improve education opportunities for local girls. Funding from Vodafone Americas Foundation would enable to us to work with our existing female Fellows/partners to develop a local women's advisory council to amplify our support structures for women and girls and consider our scaling strategies to achieve the greatest impact in this area.

ConnectED uses an innovative Fellows Program, rooted in human centered design and technology, to support local rural community leaders to engage their communities to improve education outcomes from the bottom-up. Our model not only improves education outcomes for youth but also build community cohesion, leadership and resiliency through its leadership training and community engagement. On average our Fellows secure 50-75% of their project cost from their local community (volunteer support, services, local businesses etc.). Support from the GSR prize would enable us to scale our model in Guatemala and beyond so that millions could benefit from its impact.