Ubongo’s mission is to create interactive and accessible ""edutainment"" for children in Africa with the aim of entertaining them to learn and love learning. The album project that I worked on during the summer encapsulated that mission. I was responsible for the release of four Ubongo albums, a task that included compiling the music, designing the products and managing promotion and publicity. The albums were available for digital purchase, but the singles were free to download on simple, web-accessible mobile phones, making them accessible to the parents’ children who need it. The short- and long-term aim for these projects is to have children think about topics they learn in school. My other major project was the “Wasichana Wednesday” segment that I designed with the aim of promoting girls' education. When it airs on the upcoming season, it will encourage girls to learn and to love learning, fitting in well with Ubongo's mission.

Barnard professor Kimberly Marten once said that the discipline of political science seeks to explain human behavior and make predictions about future human behavior. For my summer fellowship, I used both skills. In creating content for Ubongo, I would first have to explain what resources are present and what ones are absent and attempt to understand why. For example, the “Wasichana Wednesday” project involved a long research process exploring why young girls leave school and others are unable to attend in the first place. A large portion of my summer work involved making calculated predictions on how children would react to the products we were going to put out, determining what was most applicable when planning the release of the album, and strategizing how to get our audiences to react best to our releases.

I thoroughly used my critical thinking skills this summer with every task I was assigned and in the portions of my job that involved research. I always looked to past examples of what has worked well and what hasn’t in ""edutainment,"" and this reliance of historical evidence is crucial to my political science degree.

During the summer, I worked with the CEO and COO, respectively, in the business development department and the work was more difficult than I had anticipated. I did not enjoy researching.

Although I am a skeptic of aid and the political implications that accompany it, I learned about the various grants and donors and the involvement of foreign government that was needed for funding for Ubongo. However, my attempts at reaching out to Tanzanian businesses and organizations were not successful, with many of them being disinterested, others being unable to gauge our usefulness and some even avoiding my phone calls! Although I did enjoy the different meetings I was able to attend, it was a challenge to remain motivated during this period. I realized that a major component of nonprofits is finding the means of financial survival and as someone who is interested in working in this sector, I hope to use my experience this summer as a guide of what to do in the future.

This summer exposed me to the realities of the education sector in Tanzania. User testing involved me testing the children’s knowledge before and after they were exposed to our content, and I saw how large the knowledge gaps was across almost all age demographics. That exposure enlightened me to the fact that there is a lot of work to be done in schooling and learning in my home country. But the more positive takeaway was seeing that there is a lot of innovative work being done and I really believe that Ubongo is at the forefront. Lastly, my interactions with the private and public sector through my business development work led me to believe that there is room for collaboration because all parties want the same thing — better education for kids and Tanzania. I would definitely say that optimism for the future, along with an understanding of the present, were my biggest takeaways.

My goals at the start of the summer were to further my knowledge of Tanzania and the education sector, to find a community of individuals passionate about the sector and to identify my role as a Tanzanian in terms of social change. My internship at Ubongo allowed me to achieve all of these goals. I believe that I have a social duty to use my knowledge and experiences to push for change but I realize that there is still a lot that I do not know! My goal for the future is to grow more and now identify how to position myself for the future in Tanzania. Throughout my experience, I learned that working in the social enterprise and non-governmental sector is not always easy but it is immensely rewarding when all is said and done. I am very excited for what comes next.