Three Gates Cambridge Scholars and two alumnae took part in a Pitch Your Passion event last week.
The Gates Cambridge Scholars Council held an event last week to help scholars interested in education access and equality hone their pitching skills.
Pitch Your Passion brought the Gates Cambridge community together to exchange ideas and experiences. Three Scholars – Sandile Mtetwa, Mike Meaney, and Jerelle Joseph – presented their projects and shared some of the challenges they are facing to alumnae experts Dr Sonia Ilie and Dr Tara Cookson who provided insights gained from their own work.
Dr Ilie is a Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Education at Cambridge while Dr Cookson is the Director at Ladysmith, a venture that helps organisations take action on gender data.
Issues discussed included scalability and meaningful partnerships were formed.
Sandile Mtetwa is a chemistry PhD scholar from Zimbabwe who founded Simuka-Arise Initiative. This non-profit organisation aims to empower young women academically, economically and socially.
Mike Meaney is an education PhD scholar from Arizona, USA. He sits on the board of directors of the Bring on the Books Foundation. The foundation’s mission is to increase the accessibility of books to low-income families by re-routing gently used books to those in need.
Jerelle Joseph, winner of this year's Bill Gates Sr Prize, is a scholar from Dominica who co-founded CariScholar. They aim to connect Caribbean students with some of Caribbean’s most prolific and accomplished academics and professionals in order to foster mentorship, sharing of information and guidance.
*Picture from the Ladysmith site.
