Social and Educational Fellowship.

I studied political science and when I was studying I thought my life was going to be very different. After I graduated, I was able to work in the places I had always imagined for myself. The problem was I wasn’t feeling satisfied. 

Leadership starts in ourselves and that means we are called to discover and live out our purpose. Mine is to build a country that is fair and inclusive to everyone. I had always been interested in working with disadvantaged communities and had also participated in many volunteer activities. However, the first time I could feel that I had found my place was in a classroom. Being a teacher in some of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in Argentina gave me the privilege to work with children that didn't have the same opportunities I had had and made me realize all that I still had to learn from them.

Since 2010, Enseñá por Argentina works for all children and youth in the country to have access to quality education and the same opportunities, regardless of the socioeconomic context in which they are born and grow up. We want to contribute to the reduction of inequalities, building a movement of leaders committed to the reality of education.

Our educational system reproduces social inequalities, at Enseñá por Argentina we believe that it is unfair for people to have fewer educational opportunities simply because of their family or the place where they were born. This is the main motivation for which we work, for equal educational opportunities, risk of the impact that education can have so that a person can build his life project.

Since 2010 Enseñá por Argentina (ExA) recruits university graduates and teachers to accompany the school trajectory of students in vulnerable socioeconomic contexts, to empower them both inside and outside the classroom. After a rigorous selection process, fellows commit to participate in our Social and Educational Leadership Program for two years full time. Later, as part of our Alumni network, they continue to work in different areas and roles (as teachers, school directors, in the public sector, or as social organizations leaders, etc.) to expand the opportunities of our country's young people. 

We work with educational communities crossed by economic inequalities, measured primarily by family income and place of residence (rural or in the peripheries of urban centers with no access to basic services), but also by a strong social and cultural inequality. These are populations with high percentages of immigrant and indigenous families, who suffer strong external but also internal discrimination, deepening their experience of inequality and injustice.

Unfortunately, in Argentina schools replicate the inequities that we observe in society, and thus in Enseñá por Argentina we believe that these should be the center of our concerns and actions if we want to see long-term systemic changes. It is essential to provide a quality education to all of our students so that they are not excluded from the socio-economic system, but it is also essential to work on abilities such as understanding, empathy, respect and perseverance, to empower them and provide them with tools so they can build the changes they want to see.

For this reason, also, is that we aim to build a movement in favor of quality and inclusive education, that involves social leaders who are aware of the reality.

With Elevate Price support, we will be able to Recruit and train new fellows who will impact over 1.200 students. Our Recruitment process starts in July and ends in December. After that, the new fellows go through the Summer Institute, an immersive 4 week training program where they learn the pedagogical tools that they will need in order to teach in the most disadvantaged school communities from Argentina, and it is also when they put these theoretic tools into practice by taking part of a summer school where they teach for two weeks and are observed and accompanied by tutors.

Enseñá por Argentina was founded in 2010 by Oscar Ghillione, the Foundation's first CEO. With the idea of creating a movement of professionals committed to education, in the same year, the first call was made for the Educational and Social Fellowship. Since then, every year we call professionals from all careers to join the commitment to transform education directly in the communities that need it most.

I met the Project in 2012, when they came to give a talk to the University where I was studying. During the years 2013 - 2014, I carried out the Program and taught in schools in vulnerable contexts in the City and Province of Buenos Aires. They were the most challenging and transformational years of my life. I entered the classroom looking to give my students the best opportunities and I learned that in order for that to happen, the first one that had to change was me. Since then I am not the same, the lives of my students are my truth and my hope. The project gave me a clear and deep purpose: I am convinced that to change reality we have to start by knowing it and then transform ourselves, and all that way we have to do it collectively.

I found a new passion and a totally different way of living and sharing with others. The experience allowed me to engage with our reality and since then I´ve been committed to it every day.

I have been part of ExA for more than 7 years and I was able to experience the organization from different roles. In some way, my journey is a part of the foundation's dream come true: a person who is not the same when the Fellowship ends and decides to transform by transforming himself; a person who, once he knows the classrooms, decides to get involved with all his passion, time and commitment to change the situation we live in today. I think the most important thing is that in every decision and action I have my present that we are a movement and that the first thing is always our students.

Leadership starts in ourselves and that means we are called to discover and live out our purpose. Mine is to build a country that is fair and inclusive to everyone. I had always been interested in working with disadvantaged communities and had also participated in many volunteer activities. However, the first time I could feel that I had found my place was in a classroom. Being a teacher in some of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in Argentina gave me the privilege to work with children that didn't have the same opportunities I had had and made me realize all that I still had to learn from them.

The first time I lived it was in the classroom. Being a teacher in some of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in Argentina gave me the privilege to be with children that didn't have the same opportunities I had. When I met Juan he had only one friend in the classroom. Juan and I shared conversations during breaks and I realized there were students like him that needed other spaces to explore themselves and their leadership. This took me in a journey to undertake new initiatives, such as opening an “after school club” where they prepared for the United Nations Model, a powerful experience that I had lived as a student, and that allowed them to develop socioemotional skills and engage with new global perspectives. I also started a project to mentor the younger children in school and work with other schools to prevent drug addiction. Juan engaged with the activities and became more confident, he started to shine in his own way. He shared his sexual orientation with his family and his classmates, he became the president of the student’s union and now he is studying to become an accountant. 

I went from leading with students at the classroom level to working full time with Enseñá por Argentina, where I have held various roles developing our program and leading partnerships with key stakeholders. The lessons I learned about leadership as a teacher proved invaluable to create change in bigger systems. One moment stands out in my work: The government had asked us to move a group of teachers from traditional classrooms to an afterschool program. Our participants hadn't prepared for these new roles, our staff didn't have experience with afterschool programs, and our Board worried that our mission was drifting. Everyone saw this as a threat. I invited them to reconnect with our core purpose, and see if this could actually be an opportunity to take a leap forward in our work. We did just that, teaching ourselves an invaluable lesson about our commitment with the holistic future of students and communities, and not just the school they attend. Furthermore, the afterschool program proved to be a powerful space to develop our students motivation and their cognitive and non-academic skills. I found myself called to pull people together around a higher purpose and discover their power to make that happen. 

We are part of a International network called TEACH FOR ALL with presence in more than 50 countries, all mobilized for the same vision: QUALITY EDUCATION THAT TRANSFORM THE LIFE OF THE STUDENTS OF VIOLATED CONTEXTS.

Enseñá por Argentina offers professionals a unique Social and Educational Fellowship, which includes instances of continuous training and support framed within a two-year plan.

Our Training Program is based on a skills selection model. Professionals, Alumni and Staff participate in it. The selection process for professionals who apply to the Fellowship has three stages: online application, individual interview, group interview and a final interview in cases deemed necessary. In each of these instances, we measure and evaluate certain competencies and mentalities that we consider to be fundamental to ensure that the Professionals have a successful performance in the Program, achieve a positive impact on their students and become agents of change in the educational system. Some of the competencies are: leadership, perseverance, openness to feedback and empathy.

Throughout the Fellowship, these and other mentalities and competencies continue to develop and strengthen themselves intentionally during the two years, promoting the growth of the pedagogical and leadership skills of the Professionals.

Throughout the 2 years of the Program, each of these objectives corresponds to an axis of training (which in turn provides answers to our fundamental questions of what, who and how), in which the development of mentalities, skills and knowledge related to it.

Our proposal:

• Break the circle that perpetuates inequality by thinking to education in an innovative and transformative way

• Develop collective, diverse and contextualized leadership.

• Focus our work in the Educational Communities more violated.

• Implement the "Social and Educational Fellowship ExA ”+ Special projects.

Currently, this project reaches 12,000 students. We estimate we will positively impact 15,000 children and youth in our country next year.

In the coming year, our ambition is to open a new region in the northeast of our country, in order to continue impacting communities that need it most.

In five years, we will have settled in the southern region of our country (which includes 6 new provinces: Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut, Santa Cruz, Tierra del Fuego and La Pampa), where inequity and educational inequality are real. We will be able to reach children and youth in these provinces who currently do not have access to quality education. 

Also, we aspire to see students become our next fellows.

Also, our movement will have gained strong recognition as a key player in the education field and the voices of our fellows, Alumni and most importantly, the communities we work with will not only be heard, but they will be the ones leading the systemic changes. 

The problem of inequality is too big. When faced with structural and complex problems, I am convinced that it becomes imperative to build bridges and work in a multi-sectoral manner.

We work together with other people, organizations and communities with the commitment to achieve greater educational equity. We do this by developing bonds of trust based on empathy, transparency, respect and humility, because we understand that the results we achieve together are more valuable when shared.

In our daily work, we articulate with the private, public and social sectors. Our goal is that all the different actors in our society get involved with the injustice that results from social inequality, and that everybody contributes from their place.

Through our Program we work with leaders who come from very different places and who  accompany communities that are also very heterogeneous. We are committed to learning from differences and to contextualizing our work by always including the voices of the communities we work with, especially those of our students.

Our scaling strategy comprehends a number of action lines. One of our main goals is to reach more regions, so as to be able to continue reaching students in remote areas that could benefit the most from our program. In order to do so, we approach the local (provincial) Ministries of Education who allow us to enter our country's most vulnerable public schools. Simultaneously, we reach out to local donors (companies and individuals) so that we are able to finance our operation. 

We also aim to expand our network of fellows and Alumni. 

Finally, we consider that one of the keys to our scaling strategy lies on our students. It is them who will start working on their life projects and who can generate real impact in their communities, passing onto others what they have learnt, identifying improvement opportunities and creating bondages and networks that will scale steadily.

We will diversify our portfolio of donors by targeting financially stable companies, such as ARCOR, Toyota, Wal-Mart and Bayer, from different sectors to increase ExAs funding independence from temporary market price fluctuations.

We will create a new pipeline of corporate donors with high economic prospects mainly from the digital sector including companies such as Mercado Libre, Uala and mainstream delivery apps. This is key as to set a base for a long term relationship with the winners of the future corporate world.

We will Strengthen our strategy with High-Net-Worth Individuals (HNWI) to develop this new income channel which could help us to diversify our donor portfolio and thus achieve a stronger position when faced with an economic crisis. To achieve this goal, ExA is going to launch in 2021 the “Friends of ExA” club, which will consist of a group of HNWI who will commit to donate a certain amount of money each month, for a period of at least five years. In exchange, they will be able to participate in different activities such as conferences and classes given by PExAs, between others.

Set on a marketing campaign in order to attract individual donors in 2021, especially argentine people who live abroad.

Besides, ExA has a sustainable alliance with the City of Buenos Aires government, plus ongoing negotiations with the governments of anothers provinces in the pipeline.

ExA is willing to open a new region every year for the next three years, which represents a 20% growth rate per year.

ExA will receive about USD 300K for this year and next year from agreements with companies through Teach For All.

ExA is applying to the sustainable rounding program of Banco Galicia and Argentina 2020 - Thematic Program for Civil Society Organizations of the European Union. Also from the program Challenge of the IOM and the IDB with Teach for All.

USD 583.000

The aid will help us to open a new region in the south of Argentina, where we are currently not working but have already initiated conversations with the public and private sectors. This means setting up a new local team, and starting to work with new fellows that will impact students directly and indirectly throughout the school community. 

We understand that the possibility of scaling and being able to work in other provinces is only a first step, which enables our fellows to enter the classroom and start teaching in new schools. From there begins the other great challenge, one that lays by the interaction with the whole community. Just as each student is different, each context is also different and our experience tells us that collective and diverse leadership is the way to generate a real impact that is sustained over time.