Be part of our global movement!

empowermefirst.college is unique as we are a global movement of volunteers sharing our expertise to reach one common goal: Free access for vulnerable school dropouts to quality education. Our success is based on the selflessness and consistency of our volunteers, who work relentlessly on creating learning content for our beneficiaries. For this we thank them for their support: You make an impact!

While we are working on creating educational content for the coming semesters and on partnerships with self-sustaining organisations working with vulnerable school dropouts who want to use our educational methodology and content to create effective learning and entrepreneurial success for their students and communities, we are featuring some of our volunteers representing different departments of empowermefirst.college in our 2024 newsletter series.

Free learning videos on Youtube

As we believe in free access to learning, our learning videos on our youtube channel are free. Please share and subscribe to them.

These videos are only introductory videos, while our students will have a deeper and varied learning experience that follows four steps:

1) Theory through introductory videos and reading

2) Practice in discussion forums, with sample answers and in study groups

3) Training with quizzes that can be taken as often as they want and will prepare them for exams

4) Three graded assignments per semesters of which one is interdisciplinary, in which they are asked to analyse the challenges to their communities, come up with practical solutions and learn about entrepreneurship and innovation.

The semester grades will count 50% towards their final exams and can be retaken until they achieve a grade of 70% or more, allowing them to exceed the minimum requirements for passing. While our students study online, local coaches guide them towards finding the best learning methods.

While our focus is on digital literacy, as you can see an example in the video above, and STEM in general, we want to start our series of introducing members from different areas with a fairly new department:

Learn German with Native Speakers

Let us introduce one of our volunteers of our German department, Helen Furner.

"Hello. I’m Helen, 21 years old and come from Winterthur, Switzerland (near Zurich). I study political science and anthropology in my second year undergraduate and work part-time for the Academy of Advanced Studies in Lucerne, as well as in the hospital sometimes. In my free time, I love to meet my friends, play volleyball and generally sports, laugh a lot, and draw sometimes. Also, I’ve discovered puzzles for myself, which bring a lot of peace."

Her clear videos help our students to learn every day phrases.

Educational polls - Have fun learning!

Let us introduce a long term volunteer of empowermefirst, Anesu Kuwana, who has been bringing ever new and fascinating educational polls to LinkedIn. You don't know them?

Follow empowermefirst LinkedIn page never to miss them again! We're all looking forward to the next chance to learn. This is what he says about volunteering for empowermefirst:

"My name is Anesu Kuwana. I am a Zimbabwean who has now lived in Geneva, Switzerland for more than 15 years. Living in such an international environment has not only shown me the privileges I have been afforded in my life, but the presence of the various NGOs has made me realize the sheer magnitude of the people around the world who have not had the same opportunities as me. This was not lost on me in Zimbabwe but amplified when I moved to Geneva. Seeing this, I feel organizations such empowermefirst are not just another NGO, but an organisation that I believe is truly allowing people from the toughest backgrounds in our world, the chance to make a change in their own lives through education, that in many cases is just the leg up people need."

Thank you Anesu. Kind words like these are the greatest motivators to continue with our mission and vision to bring education to all, regardless of their backgrounds, gender, race, faith or lifestyles.

Partnerships and communications

With Anesu as one of our longest volunteers and most of our volunteers being active in creating educational content, we also are seeking to partner with like-minded organisations, individuals or educational institutions. For this we have a partnerships team and want to introduce one of our newest members to you, Raffaella Ciovi.

"I have worked in People Development for 15 years. It is more than a job to me, it's a way of life, a commitment to empowering others to fulfill their potential. And this is exactly the mission of empowermefirst.college: making higher education accessible - against all odds. My role as a volunteer is to create high quality didactic material and to facilitate the creation of partnerships with public and private institutions across Switzerland. If you would like to know more or if you are interested in discussing a potential collaboration, don't hesitate to contact me."

Do want to make a difference?

Four years ago, the vision was conceived, three years ago, empowermefirst.college was founded by visionaries who decided to just get started, no matter how limited the funds, and what we have achieved proves, that funding does not always determine success; in fact, success becomes unreachable if we make funds a key factor, while as a group of global experts we can and will achieve education equality!

Do you share our vision? Do you want to make a difference? Why not join us today? We are looking for instructional designers, especially in the sciences, maths, ICT, business studies and languages, for members in our partnerships team, HR and people development, who are willing to give a few hours a week consistently to make a difference. Apply now!

You don't have time to volunteer, but share our vision? Thanks to our volunteers, clear processes and policies your donation, no matter how small, will make a huge difference and can be deducted from tax.