Educate! believes that the greatest injustice facing Africa is not poverty, or ethnic violence, corruption, AIDS, or even the lack of access to education. Rather, the most profound issue Africa faces is the continuing need for socially responsible leaders who can develop internally driven solutions to the above challenges. Educate! directly addresses the root cause of the most pressing challenges by empowering the next generation of socially responsible leaders who will develop innovative solutions to the vast problems facing Uganda and Africa at large.

The Educate! Experience is a two-year program for A-level students (last two years of high school) in Uganda, or Educate! Scholars, that consists of two components: 1. An innovative leadership curriculum and 2. A student-created social enterprise. 375 Scholars at 25 selected partner schools across Uganda are led through the Experience by Educate! Mentors. Mentors teach Educate!'s curriculum, guide Scholars through the creation of a social enterprise, and build supportive relationships with Scholars empowering them to become leaders in their communities.

Idea Generation: I was 17 years old when I met Benson Olivier in Kyangwali Refugee Settlement, Uganda in 2002. He was an 18 year old, orphaned refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Sitting in his home, a small mud hut in Kyangwali, I will always remember the moment when I listened to him tell me how he lost his parents, fled to Kyangwali, and worked to overcome the challenges he faced. I asked him what I could do to help. He asked for only an education so he could work to solve the challenges faced by the refugees of Kyangwali and the people of Congo. I paid for Benson to go to school, and Educate! began. Today Educate! provides gives scholarships to 21 students. The results are remarkable. From building an orphanage, to raising funds to send over 30 students to school, blanketing their community with 5,000 mosquito nets, and positively impacting over 1,000 refugees, the Educate! students have become transformative leaders in Kyangwali. The Experience, which launches on March 2, aims to scale Educate!'s work by reaching students across Uganda empowering them to solve the pressing challenges facing their country from poverty to disease, and environmental degradation.

Educate! offers many opportunities for people, especially students, to get involved.

• Educate! student clubs at high schools and colleges across the US and Canada help support Educate!'s efforts to empower the next generation of socially responsible leaders in Africa. Student clubs have held fundraisers ranging from concerts, to dodgeball tournaments, bake sales, date auctions, a walk across Spain, and even a climb up Mt. Kilimanjaro. To start an Educate! club at your school, check out: http://www.experienceeducate.org/start-a-club/.
• Educate! also has an internship each summer in which students travel to Uganda and work on the ground to help the organization accomplish its mission of empowering the next generation of socially responsible leaders. Former interns have said that the Educate! internship is one of the best experiences of their lives. To learn more about how to apply: http://www.experienceeducate.org/summer-internship.

And we offer many other volunteer possibilities with the organization. For more information, contact: eric@experienceeducate.org.