On November 20, 2019 in Bilbao, Spain, Education Matters Director Rebecca Zeigler Mano gave the opening plenary address at the CIS Global Forum.  Below is the full text of her speech titled “Brave Spaces.”   Good morning! It is an incredible frankly daunting honor to speak in front of a room full of amazing colleagues, …

As we come to the end of 2019, we are very grateful for an anonymous donor who this year pledged $500,000 in matching funds to match every donation to the USAP Community School 100%.  We are getting close to finishing off these matching funds and all donations between now and January 1 will still be …

I remember how exuberant I was during the period I was doing my college applications, in my final high school year. What excited me the most was the thought of getting admitted into an international university in the US. I was then struck by reality when three of the four colleges I applied to rejected …

Everything has its flaws and the same goes for this program too; the times we had to sleep were the worst. This meant being away from all the intriguing activities this program had lined up for us and the most beautiful people in the world from what I’ve come to believe to also be the …

A few months ago, the EdMatters team was fortunate enough to have Coach Khadevis Robinson or “Coach KD” stop by our peaceful garden and donate some of his precious time and more importantly, share his wisdom with some students and coaches. Coach KD is currently coaches both the men’s and women’s cross country teams at …

The USAP Community School is accepting applications from qualified O’level students to begin A’level in January 2020. Our two year A’ level only boarding school is in service of the fact that there are many determined and talented, economically-disadvantaged students in Zimbabwe who only lack financial resources and access to information to better their educational …

As I flipped through the final pages of Chimamanda Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus, I could not wait for the last Friday of March to arrive. Each page had issues worth discussing, and I wondered how amazing it would be doing so with the exceptional and interesting members of our Education Matters Book Club. Unfortunately, I could …

Summer 2019, my first in Boston. From meeting new people as well as building on the foundations of professional and personal relationships I have cultivated over the past two years, to seeing my favorite artists play in Boston, the experience was more than I thought it would be. Although I am sad that the summer …

We were ecstatic to wake up on Sunday morning to see that the USAP story was shared in the New York Times!  Renowned columnist Frank Bruni wrote a powerful article on our students and our work which you can read here . We are grateful for this positive publicity as we continue to fundraise to …

Nineteen Zimbabwean students on break between studies at universities in Canada, the United States and Ashesi University in Ghana today (26 July 2019) graduated from the Zimbabwe Career Connect internship program.  Based in Bulawayo and Harare, the students spent the two months of June and July learning and contributing as interns at prominent companies and …

Twenty nine USAP Zimbabwe students chosen from an applicant pool of over 700 have collectively earned over $7,728,212 in scholarships and financial assistance to study in seven countries internationally this month.   Harkening from geographically diverse regions of Zimbabwe, the 29 are pursuing a wide variety of fields of studies at universities in Costa Rica, Ghana, …

As we continue to fundraise to build the USAP Community School, brick by brick, board by board, we have exciting news.  An extremely generous donor, who has chosen to remain anonymous, has pledged a $500,000 grant to match dollar for dollar every donation we get up to that amount. We have launched a campaign to …