The University of Wisconsin-Madison African Studies Program is pleased to announce a second time partnership with CEOs of Tomorrow’s These Teens Mean Busine$$ Global Excursion Program.
In the 2023 global and entrepreneurial program for Grades 9-12, ten CEOs of Tomorrow scholars will embark on a 15-day cultural exchange trip to The Gambia, from July 23 to August 5. In this youth entrepreneurship program, teens learn foundational business concepts, earn college credits, and collaborate with international teens to develop small business ideas aimed at addressing local needs and generating revenue to their host communities. Learn more here.
As a strong supporter of the program, the UW-Madison African Studies Program has contributed towards the initiative in two major ways. First, it facilitated a pre-departure Wolof language training for the participants with Yaya Diatta, a doctoral candidate at the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the School of Education at UW-Madison. The African Studies Program also facilitated a connection with the West Africa Research Center (WARC) located in Senegal. WARC will host the CEOs of Tomorrow scholars at the center’s facilities and will organize a cultural and historical tour of Dakar.
CEOs of Tomorrow have pledged to support the UW-Madison African Studies Program outreach programming by sharing their experience with children across the state of Wisconsin. Specifically, the participants will curate a Gambia Discovery Box and support the 2023-2024 Children’s African Story Hour (CASH) at Madison Public Libraries.
The Discovery Box program is an initiative of Wisconsin’s Institute for Regional and International Studies (IRIS) which is facilitated by area studies centers as an international teaching resource containing diverse cultural materials across a wide range of subjects for K-12 students. The African Studies Program lends its discovery boxes to K-12 teachers free of charge including mailing and return across the state, bringing African content to even the most remote and rural school districts.
In 2019, the CEOs of Tomorrow Global Excursions group curated a Botswana Discovery Box which has been used in classrooms across Wisconsin, extending the value of the cultural exchange trip far beyond the 10-days in Botswana. To learn more about the African Studies Program discovery boxes and request a box, visit africa.wisc.edu.
