Many leaders today recognize that quality education is paramount to empowering youth and building for a better tomorrow.  In the United States, efforts have been undertaken by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to reform the American school system, starting in New York.  Programs such as Teach for America and KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) have demonstrated innovative ways to raise the quality of education domestically.  However, though domestic education reform is critical, there is also a very strong need for better schooling worldwide.

As I understand it, there are two fundamentally different end goals that those trying to improve education can target:

• Improve global literacy rates and ensure that there truly is no child left behind
• Improve higher level education opportunities and enable more high profile youth to reach their full potential

Though one would hope we could accomplish both goals simultaneously, it is difficult to decide how you would prioritize one over the other if you had to (I have grappled with this internally for some time).  In both cases, education improvement empowers youth to pursue new opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable to them.  Over time I’ve started to lean towards higher level education as a better short-term solution because it will give natural born leaders more skills with which they can help contribute back to their own society.  Unlocking talent and potential amongst high profile candidates, is more likely to lead to economic and social benefits in the short run than improving literacy and elementary education opportunities.  One would hope that those short-term economic benefits can translate into more funding and talent focused on improving literacy in the long run.  Still, it is difficult to say which approach is better.

The Akilah Institute for Women is a perfect example of an organization that is focused on unlocking the talent of those who have already completed secondary school.  The school, which opened on February 2^nd 2010, has 50 students currently enrolled.  The Akilah Institute educates the whole person with a focus on “giving students challenges for their mind, while also teaching them ways to grow from the heart.”  Students are trained in a specialized way to directly provide them with entrepreneurial skills that will allow them to find good jobs post graduation.  At the moment, much of the coursework is focused specifically on teaching the skills required to enter the hospitality industry, which is rapidly growing in Rwanda.  One aspect that I found interesting is the fact that the courses taught at Akilah are very tactical; they include English language studies, computer skills, food/beverage preparation, property management, housekeeping, and front office operations.

In addition, the Akilah institute is located in Kigali, Rwanda, a country that is still feeling the effects of genocide.  The young women being trained at the institute have lived through a tremendous human tragedy and they are now being trained to go forth as people trained in both business and morality.  To emphasize this, Akilah puts community first.  As an example, every Friday the entire school congregates for an activity called “Kantapi”; all of the students and staff sit in a large circle and take turns sharing the joys and the sorrows they had that week.  This is a healthy way to teach students to be pro-active in communicating with others and to teach them confidence in themselves.  This is a critical time for the country of Rwanda and empowering youth to become future business leaders is certainly a very positive way to move forward.