Community Engagement Exchange · CEE ↗
Emerging community leaders spend three months with a U.S. host organization, gaining practical experience and developing projects to carry forward in their home communities.
Youth Technology Corps · The Global Alliance
Local leaders.
A world of possibility.
The Fellows bring the relationships. Young people bring the next generation of teachers. Together, they build something every community can make its own.
How the Alliance began ↓The connections that made it possible
The Fellows didn’t just find us.
We had help.
U.S. Department of State exchange programs, implemented by IREX, connected YTC with community leaders from around the world. They brought experience, ideas and relationships into our Chicago clubrooms—and saw possibilities for their communities back home.
Community Solutions Program · CSP ↗
Experienced community leaders take part in a yearlong professional development exchange, including a four-month placement with a U.S. organization and a community project at home.
Both programs are sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and implemented by IREX.
The exchange opened a door.
Together, we built an Alliance.
The State Department and IREX helped make these relationships possible. YTC and the Fellows kept building them after the exchange ended—connecting local leaders, student teachers and shared resources.
Through that Alliance, YTC’s curriculum reached schools and communities that had never been connected to our clubrooms. Fellows brought the local relationships; the network helped turn those connections into opportunities to learn and teach.
The people who carry it forward
The Fellows are the Alliance.
Different communities. Different strengths. Relationships that continue long after the fellowship ends.
GhanaProsper Tornyi
Global Alliance President
NamibiaEslien Tsuses
Local programs and partnerships
EgyptHossam Basha
A voice for the shared vision
CameroonLuzette Kuwung
YEARN · women in STEM
MozambiqueManuel Zacarias Tauzene
School partnerships and exchange
NigeriaOlumide Kolawole
A new classroom, built together
GuatemalaJacky Salazar
Fellow-to-Fellow connection
More of the Alliance’s founding connections
The 2024 founding proposal also named Georges Theodore Dougnan of Educ4peace Youth in Mali; Ioana Tatarciuc of Assist Humanitarian Foundation in Romania; Thomas Kamkweche of Youth Alliance for Sustainable Development in Malawi; Dr. Muhammad Abdul Saboor of Lodhran Pilot Project in Pakistan; and Amanuel Shimeles of Ethiopia.
These are founding relationships recorded in the proposal, rather than a claim that every proposed program is operating today.
How the network grows
The method travels through local leadership.
A Fellow brings local knowledge and trusted relationships. A school or community organization supplies a home. The Alliance connects teachers, curriculum and equipment. Students gain the skills to carry the work forward.
Hossam Basha · Egypt
Hossam said it best.
We still live it every day.
Hossam wasn’t YTC’s first Fellow, but he put into words the idea that continues to guide our work.
Namibia · Eslien Tsuses
Eslien brought the idea home.
A community made it grow.
Eslien saw students in Evanston teaching across borders. She returned to Namibia with a plan—and built the local partnerships that could turn it into classrooms. The story brings together Namibian leadership, Ethiopian and ETHS student-teachers, and a network willing to share what it knows.
01 · The intention
A plan, before there was a program.
During her fellowship at ETHS, Eslien watched young people mentor other students in robotics. She recognized something she could build on at home: community relationships, a place to meet and students ready to learn.
02 · The work between the visits
Namibia built the foundation. The network brought teachers.
Eslien developed partnerships and secured support inside Namibia. As the ETHS students progressed from learners to mentors, they and student-teachers at Haile-Manas Academy in Ethiopia helped teach the new Namibian programs online.
The relationship grew through regular teaching. Knowledge began moving between communities, with local leaders making it possible for students to participate.
Follow the teaching connections
At ETHS, students gained experience mentoring Ethiopian peers before taking on responsibilities with new Namibian classes. Ethiopian students advanced into teaching roles themselves. Eslien’s local partnerships connected those teachers with young people in Namibia.
The same network would support Mozambique and, later, Nigeria. Teaching capacity could come from one partner and equipment from another; every new classroom did not have to begin alone.
03 · From the 2025 visit to Eslien’s 2026 update
Three programs.
A future being built locally.
In July 2025, eight ETHS students traveled to Namibia to teach in person and meet their online peers. In her April 2026 update, Eslien describes the work taking shape through three Namibian programs: ODEC in Swakopmund, Zanele Mbeki Private School, and I Am the Key.
She explains what students are learning, the relationships supporting them, and her ambitions for the next stage. The proposed reach across 2,000 schools remains an ambition, distinct from the programs operating today.
Watch Eslien’s 2026 update
Ghana · Prosper Tornyi
The first Fellow.
A door opened for everyone after him.
Prosper arrived at YTC in 2022 with his own experience in youth engagement, engineering and community development. He connected with the ETHS school community and helped students see what an international partnership could mean.
Through Proswrites Foundation in Ghana, the relationship connected YTC’s approach with work already rooted in his community. His focus on opportunity for young people and women gave that partnership a purpose beyond the equipment itself.
Today, as Global Alliance President, Prosper represents the next step: Fellows helping shape and carry the network together.
From community work to a shared network
Prosper co-founded Proswrites Foundation in 2014. His fellowship materials describe mentorship for girls, youth employment and educational opportunity as priorities. YTC’s first fellowship connection brought that experience into Chicago—and opened a route for subsequent Fellows to bring their own communities into the work.
Mozambique · Manuel Zacarias Tauzene
A school joins the network.
Its students meet the world.
Manuel’s work in technology education at Shining Lord’s School in Beira gave the YTC partnership a local home. He brought plans back to a school ready to participate, linking its students with the Alliance’s teaching network.
That relationship grew into exchange—and support for another country’s classroom. Mozambique would help supply equipment for Olumide’s program in Nigeria.
Nigeria · Olumide Kolawole
A new club.
More than one country behind it.
Olumide’s Nigerian program brings the Alliance’s promise into focus: Mozambique supplied equipment, an Ethiopian student taught the classes, and a local leader created the opportunity for young people to join.
The network’s strengths could come together around a new classroom. A community that had received support could now help another begin.
Cameroon · YEARN
Luzette Kuwung
Luzette brought the model into the YEARN program, connecting youth empowerment and women in STEM with the Alliance’s shared approach to technology education.
Guatemala · Fellow-to-Fellow growth
Jacky Salazar
Connected through Eslien, Jacky brought the curriculum into a school setting in Guatemala. Her story shows how Fellows can introduce one another to the work and carry it into new communities.
The expertise and support behind responsible growth
Assets for responsible growth
Responsible scale combines expertise, review and accountability.
Georgia Tech Student Makers
Engineering students are entering YTC’s instructor-preparation pipeline. Dr. Kelly Griendling brings aerospace education, K–12 outreach and university mentoring experience.
Georgia Tech profile ↗Left Bank Consulting
Marc Siciliano contributes STEM systems, career-connected learning, federal award controls and the structures needed to move from promising work to disciplined implementation.
Left Bank Consulting ↗Goshen Consulting
Dr. Matt Feldmann and evaluation partners bring instrument design, data review, qualitative learning and independent assessment separate from program delivery.
Goshen Consulting ↗Advisory assets assembled for the next Mexico phase
A board designed to test the expansion from several directions.
These advisors and specialists are resources for responsible scaling. Final roles and participation should be confirmed for each new initiative before they are represented as commitments.
Build the network with us
Help us build the capacity behind the next classroom.
Give your expertise, your time or your financial support. Help local leaders and student teachers connect the next classroom to the YTC network.
Underwrite curriculum, technology, communications and core capacity.
Bring technical, creative, legal, fundraising or operational expertise.
Join the board or an advisory group prepared to govern responsible growth.
Contribute as an intern while building a portfolio of meaningful work.
Connect a college, university or employer to mentoring and applied projects.