Former live theatre production specialist Heidi Lovett is the Executive Director of Swerve Robotics, a Washington-based organisation which uses applied-STEM education programmes to empower young people to pursue advanced STEM studies and career opportunities.
Heidi initially started Swerve Robotics club (originally the Gothic Lawn Gnomes FIRST LEGO League team) as a means to channel her son's creative engineering inclinations at a young age. She enjoyed coaching his team so much that when he left for college, she kept doing it. She has been active with the FIRST programme for more than 10 seasons in many different capacities.
Listen in to hear Heidi unpack the merits of the global FIRST initiative which has so far enabled over 320,000 youthful participants from 98 countries to engage in competitive STEM challenges which promote critical thinking, team-building and a solid work ethic. Heidi also shares Swerve's plans to ignite enthusiasm for STEM in Botswana's youth by introducing FIRST programmes in that country.
Image credit: Jelleke Vanooteghem
Mere days before 2018 came to a close, Andile Masuku sat down two bright, young Zimbabwean entrepreneurs to learn what it takes to engineer business success in Harare.
Simanga Mdhlabuta is commercial sales and business development professional and Wits MBA who gained invaluable corporate experience working for leading Zimbabwean entrepreneurial giants such as Innscor, Econet and Africom. Simanga has also made meaningful entrepreneurial plays of his own in the investments and property industries, and in doing so, gained an enviable grasp of the nuances of Zimbabwe’s investment potential. He is currently Co-curator and Head of Partnerships at Zimbabwe Investment Tours.
Wisdom Gakaka is Co-founder and CEO of Cyrex Business, a group of companies which spans high-end corporate branding, flatpack furniture manufacturing and serviced office operations. In just over ten years, Wisdom and his co-founder Annabelle have grown a modest branding solutions brokerage into a profitable business with impressive in-house production capabilities.
This podcast offers invaluable insight into the pragmatic realities of leveraging long-term entrepreneurial investment strategies to crack one of Southern Africa's most promising markets.
Image credit: Henry Hakulandaba
Alain Nkurukiye is a Corporate Strategy and Economic Policy MBA who hails from Burundi, but has lived and worked in the Netherlands for the better part of 10 years. Through his startup, Wajenzi, he aims to channel all his professional competencies into narrowing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) financing gap by stimulating the African Diaspora to invest systematically in their countries of origin.
Listen in to hear to hear Alain explains why he's all fired up about Wajenzi's mission and to hear Andile Masuku push back on his apparently limitless passion for the work his organisation has undertaken.
Editorial Disclaimer: SPARK (spark-online.org) is the presenting sponsor of this podcast, which is part of an African Tech Roundup miniseries focused on inclusive economic progress being made in vulnerable states. African Tech Roundup retains full editorial control over all published content. Opinions expressed by the host, Andile Masuku, and his guests, do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the presenting sponsor, SPARK.
This podcast series was taped at the fringes of SPARK’s 6th annual IGNITE Conference (bit.ly/IGNITEConference2018) – a premier gathering of refugees, entrepreneurs, educators, private sector actors, government leaders, academics and NGOs.
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