The Aspire Institute hosted an inspiring event this month, Global Collaborators Connect: The Future of Leadership. This gathered partners and collaborators from around the world to foster connections and brainstorm innovative solutions to support low-income, first-generation to college youth.
The 2024 Aspire Leaders Program will come with exciting new elements. During this event, the Aspire Institute team gave a glimpse into the strategic planning done over the last few months.
Exciting ways for participants to engage live with each other throughout each phase of the program resonated with our collaborators, and they highlighted the importance of mentorship. Mentorship can exist among peers or through a network of world-class leaders and educators – and Aspire aims to provide both.
A dedicated partner of ours, Mahmoud Rabie, Founder of Innovate Academy, reflected on a recent conversation with alumni from Egypt and the MENA region.
“They appreciate and need mentoring,” he explained. “One of the strengths of this program is providing inspiration of what they can do in their life.”
Participants who join the 2024 Aspire Leaders Program will interact with their peers often and find inspiration. These interaction will allow these young leaders to imagine the amazing things they can achieve.
One of the strengths of this program is providing inspiration of what [the students] can do in their life.
“We always think the mentors have to be someone who is highly successful,” said Meena Sonea, Executive Director of Aspire Institute. “But one of the things we have experienced is that our [participants] come from such diverse backgrounds and some are already working and have gone through hardship. This new program allows students to be in small groups to find opportunities and learn from each other.”
Each person present also spoke in smaller groups with other professionals impacting youth in regions around the globe.
Our global community includes not only participants and alumni of the Aspire Leaders Program but also our growing network of other stakeholders who bring so much to communities worldwide.
We hope that facilitating the sharing of ideas among this expansive community will make the programs, support, and offerings even better for low-income, first-generation college students and recent graduates globally and in turn, catalyze change.
This new series of events will continue to allow our community to network, brainstorm, and inspire each other.
