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Features / Archive
9 November, 2009 13:06:56 | in society
It's a win-win-win situation: Interview with Alvaro Henzler, CEO of EnseñaPeru
By Anikó Kraft
Following the model of other international initiatives such as Teach for America, Teach First UK, and Teach For All, EnseñaPeru is recruiting talented, motivated and creative young graduates to commit themselves to a two-year teaching program where they can work on improving the quality of education.
As Alvaro Henzler, CEO of EnseñaPeru demonstrates, participating in the program is a win-win-win situation for everybody.
Society and children benefit from an education of excellence, corps members will learn about leadership and motivation, and companies sponsoring their work at schools will benefit by being able to hire skilled, motivated and talented workers.
How did EnseñaPeru start?
Was it difficult to get started with EnseñaPeru?
You have received, so far, 800 applications for the 50 positions you opened for next year. Why are people applying?
In an interview with Oh! Diosas Almendra Gomelsky said that the last thing she would think about teaching is leadership. Why do you think this is so?
In order to achieve that, we would like to double the number of recruited young people every consecutive year. We would also like to cover as many regions as possible. Right now, we operate primarily in Callao, Lima and Ica, but by the third year we would like to work in 3-4 regions. We want to create a decentralized movement, so if someone in the network would take the initiative to work in Arequipa or Cusco, we would give him or her all the support we can to open EnseñaPeru and to hire the best students to teach there.
What are your applicants like?
Right now 50% of our applicants are graduating or have graduated from the best 10 universities in Lima. 25% go some other university in Lima, and 25% of our applicants are from the countryside, like Cusco and Arequipa.
Most applicants are graduating from social sciences, or psychology, some from education, some from business. Most of them have good grades as well as some experience in volunteering, like Un Techo Para Mi País.
You said that sponsoring one young leader costs $10,000 for the two years. Where do you get your funding from?
This sum covers communication, selection procedures, training, continual support and the salary of our corps members. We have 4 main sources of funding: private companies from Peru or from abroad that are interested in investing in Peru, philanthropists who would like to support our cause, grants from international organizations, and we also have events like the Earth Dance concert or the premiere of Cabaret.
Our aim is to get 50% of our funding from private companies, 10% from events, and the other 40% from grants and philanthropists. Right now, we have 4 companies supporting between 1-3 young leaders and 3 philanthropists. We are applying for 5 grants, and donations from events give us the cash flow to keep our operations up.
Next year we would like to launch a campaign for people between 25 and 35 years old who will not commit to a 2-year teaching job, but would like to help. The cost of participating in the program would cost $100 monthly, and it would be a "coach a kid" type of the program where our participants would get to meet their "little brothers" every week or month and bond with them. We will launch the campaign next year to have a wider base for our financing.
Following the model of other international initiatives such as Teach for America, Teach First UK, and Teach For All, EnseñaPeru is recruiting talented, motivated and creative young graduates to commit themselves to a two-year teaching program where they can work on improving the quality of education.As Alvaro Henzler, CEO of EnseñaPeru demonstrates, participating in the program is a win-win-win situation for everybody.
Society and children benefit from an education of excellence, corps members will learn about leadership and motivation, and companies sponsoring their work at schools will benefit by being able to hire skilled, motivated and talented workers.
How did EnseñaPeru start?
The idea of EnseñaPeru popped out of the heads of two Peruvians living in the United States. One of them is Javier Navarro, a professor at a university in Texas, and the other one is Daniela Raffo, who is getting her social entrepreneurship MBA degree at Stanford. Through different channels, they heard about Teach For All and Teach For America and decided that Peru should have a similar program as well.
When they contacted Teach For All, they were told that the first requirement for the program is to have a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in Peru. I was travelling around Peru at that time, visiting communities in Cusco and Puno, and one day I received an e-mail asking me if I wanted to become the CEO of EnseñaPeru! That was in February this year and even though I have known Daniela from college, my first answer was "no." I was travelling around Peru, which was wonderful, and I had just gotten accepted to a Harvard MBA program, so right now I should be in Boston, sitting on classes, but… After reading about Teach For All, I realized that it was something very important and crucial for the future of Peru.
In this country, we have a booming economy, one of the 7 new wonders of the world, world-class cuisine, and still our education is the last in line in all the countries of the Latin American region in terms of educational quality and equality. There must have been some alignment of stars that brought Daniela, Javier and me together in order to act as catalysts for this youth movement which can contribute to alleviate the problem of education.
When they contacted Teach For All, they were told that the first requirement for the program is to have a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in Peru. I was travelling around Peru at that time, visiting communities in Cusco and Puno, and one day I received an e-mail asking me if I wanted to become the CEO of EnseñaPeru! That was in February this year and even though I have known Daniela from college, my first answer was "no." I was travelling around Peru, which was wonderful, and I had just gotten accepted to a Harvard MBA program, so right now I should be in Boston, sitting on classes, but… After reading about Teach For All, I realized that it was something very important and crucial for the future of Peru.
In this country, we have a booming economy, one of the 7 new wonders of the world, world-class cuisine, and still our education is the last in line in all the countries of the Latin American region in terms of educational quality and equality. There must have been some alignment of stars that brought Daniela, Javier and me together in order to act as catalysts for this youth movement which can contribute to alleviate the problem of education.
Was it difficult to get started with EnseñaPeru?
There are different ways to approach change. Some people may think that you have to make a law or a policy to make change. But I think that the most important factor to make change happen is a sense of urgency from the bottom up. And when we advertised that only 1 out of 10 children comprehend what they read and that only 4% have a chance of receiving a college education, people stop and say: wow, what can we do to change that?
So, the first element is to foster a sense of urgency in civil society. The second one is to work on creating and having role models. In Peru, we have very few leaders whom young people can admire, due to our past filled with dictatorships, which taints the image of leaders in politics. This is why we found a board with people like Gastón Acurio or Vania Masias, who have already accomplished something very important in terms of cuisine, culture, business, etc and who are admired by Peruvian youth.
So, the first element is to foster a sense of urgency in civil society. The second one is to work on creating and having role models. In Peru, we have very few leaders whom young people can admire, due to our past filled with dictatorships, which taints the image of leaders in politics. This is why we found a board with people like Gastón Acurio or Vania Masias, who have already accomplished something very important in terms of cuisine, culture, business, etc and who are admired by Peruvian youth.
You have received, so far, 800 applications for the 50 positions you opened for next year. Why are people applying?
I think the first reason people apply is that they know very well that our main challenge is education. The second reason is that we have built a very strong network of private and public institutions, so there is also strong support from these sectors. The third reason, I think, is that people know that apart from teaching children and supporting teachers, they will learn something more important: experience, which I think is invaluable. This means they will learn skills of leadership, communication, motivation which very few companies foster in the first years of a job.
When you see the experience of the Teach For All network in other countries like the UK or the US, they rank as #3 and #10 on the list of best places to start one's career. It is definitely a win-win situation, since our corps members not only earn a life experience but also impact and change their lives and the lives of other people as well.
When you see the experience of the Teach For All network in other countries like the UK or the US, they rank as #3 and #10 on the list of best places to start one's career. It is definitely a win-win situation, since our corps members not only earn a life experience but also impact and change their lives and the lives of other people as well.
In an interview with Oh! Diosas Almendra Gomelsky said that the last thing she would think about teaching is leadership. Why do you think this is so?
A teacher's career is of very low prestige. Almost nobody wants to be a teacher. When you ask young people to choose a career, becoming a teacher will be their last option. But in the history of Peru there was the role of "Amauta." Amauta was, beside an Inca, a person with great wisdom. By now the role of the Amauta, that is, the wise teacher, lost its credibility and key role in our development. Right now we have many unemployed teachers, and those with jobs earn very low wages.
What we are trying to do at EnseñaPeru is to revalue the role of a teacher; we recognize that teachers are the key element to motivate children to study. What we are trying to do is to recruit the best minds of Peru to teach the value of the role of the teacher. We also are trying to show the importance and the natural characteristics of a teacher, which are leadership and motivation, with passing on their knowledge and skills to children. It is very hard in this society to change this image – but instead of talking about leaders, we want to emphasize the act of leadership. We think that everybody can become a leader when one uses his or her talents to mobilize people from point A to B, where B is a better position for society as a whole.
What we are trying to do at EnseñaPeru is to revalue the role of a teacher; we recognize that teachers are the key element to motivate children to study. What we are trying to do is to recruit the best minds of Peru to teach the value of the role of the teacher. We also are trying to show the importance and the natural characteristics of a teacher, which are leadership and motivation, with passing on their knowledge and skills to children. It is very hard in this society to change this image – but instead of talking about leaders, we want to emphasize the act of leadership. We think that everybody can become a leader when one uses his or her talents to mobilize people from point A to B, where B is a better position for society as a whole.
Was it difficult to convince schools to participate?
We have been working with two important networks of public schools, which are managed privately. They are very neat and professional and we are working with principals and teachers on a strong strategy.
We have been working with two important networks of public schools, which are managed privately. They are very neat and professional and we are working with principals and teachers on a strong strategy.
But if these schools are run so professionally, they might not be the schools that need most help?
Yes. We have just begun building a movement, for which we are thinking on the long-term, about 20-30 years. We think the best way to start is to go to schools that provide a stable quality of education in urban and suburban areas. And when we have the brand, when we have proved impact and results and more credibility we will be able to go to schools that need our help the most in rural areas, such as in the highlands and jungle.
How do you think EnseñaPeru will make a change in the next 5-15 years?
I think we can see our first and very important impact: most people who have applied to work with us probably never thought about teaching before. Then, in the next 3 years, we will have around 300 talented people with the experience they will collect in the classroom and schools, who can then become agents of change. Systematic change is made by people, and EnseñaPeru is planning to add the experiences that talented and creative young people need to be able to make change.
I think we can see our first and very important impact: most people who have applied to work with us probably never thought about teaching before. Then, in the next 3 years, we will have around 300 talented people with the experience they will collect in the classroom and schools, who can then become agents of change. Systematic change is made by people, and EnseñaPeru is planning to add the experiences that talented and creative young people need to be able to make change.
Next to this, we would also like to create a sense of urgency when it comes to education in Peru. Most importantly we would like to foster the importance of teachers as the key element of education and to enable more kids to receive an education of excellence.
How many children are you going to reach with your 50 corps members?
On average we can reach 160 children per young leader, which is equivalent to about 4 classrooms, so in our first year we can reach around 8,000 children. By 2015, we will be able to directly impact 200,000 children. But indirectly, this effect is much greater, because we will not just impact the children, but also the teachers. The indirect impact will be greater.
Do you have any objective goals how you will measure your achievements?
Our main objective is to have 3,000 people in education working on systematic change. That is our main goal. But we don't have any objectives like these statistics that we use to create a sense of urgency. Measuring reading comprehension and math is just one aspect of education. Leadership, soft skills, motivation and autonomy are also part of it, which cannot be so easily measured. The best way to reach our aims is to have as many young leaders participate in the program as possible.
Do you have any objective goals how you will measure your achievements?
Our main objective is to have 3,000 people in education working on systematic change. That is our main goal. But we don't have any objectives like these statistics that we use to create a sense of urgency. Measuring reading comprehension and math is just one aspect of education. Leadership, soft skills, motivation and autonomy are also part of it, which cannot be so easily measured. The best way to reach our aims is to have as many young leaders participate in the program as possible.
Right now 50% of our applicants are graduating or have graduated from the best 10 universities in Lima. 25% go some other university in Lima, and 25% of our applicants are from the countryside, like Cusco and Arequipa.
Most applicants are graduating from social sciences, or psychology, some from education, some from business. Most of them have good grades as well as some experience in volunteering, like Un Techo Para Mi País.
You said that sponsoring one young leader costs $10,000 for the two years. Where do you get your funding from?
This sum covers communication, selection procedures, training, continual support and the salary of our corps members. We have 4 main sources of funding: private companies from Peru or from abroad that are interested in investing in Peru, philanthropists who would like to support our cause, grants from international organizations, and we also have events like the Earth Dance concert or the premiere of Cabaret.
Our aim is to get 50% of our funding from private companies, 10% from events, and the other 40% from grants and philanthropists. Right now, we have 4 companies supporting between 1-3 young leaders and 3 philanthropists. We are applying for 5 grants, and donations from events give us the cash flow to keep our operations up.
Next year we would like to launch a campaign for people between 25 and 35 years old who will not commit to a 2-year teaching job, but would like to help. The cost of participating in the program would cost $100 monthly, and it would be a "coach a kid" type of the program where our participants would get to meet their "little brothers" every week or month and bond with them. We will launch the campaign next year to have a wider base for our financing.
Do you think it is a special Peruvian characteristic that the young people are so enthusiastic about creating change?
I don't think it is special. When you see the successes of the network, in Germany and the UK, especially, they have the same enthusiasm. I do not want to blow my own horn, but in terms of first campaigns, Peru is really ahead. But in their second year, Chile got 2000 applications.
But I do think that it all comes down to one thing: the sense of urgency. If you add that to empowering young people to take responsibility for change, it does make a difference.
To learn more about EnseñaPeru, click here.
I don't think it is special. When you see the successes of the network, in Germany and the UK, especially, they have the same enthusiasm. I do not want to blow my own horn, but in terms of first campaigns, Peru is really ahead. But in their second year, Chile got 2000 applications.
But I do think that it all comes down to one thing: the sense of urgency. If you add that to empowering young people to take responsibility for change, it does make a difference.
To learn more about EnseñaPeru, click here.
2 Comments
# Luz Belleza-Binns says :
12 November, 2009 [ 08:11 ]
13 November, 2009 [ 01:39 ]
# Luz Belleza-Binns says :
12 November, 2009 [ 08:11 ]
As a Peruvian living in the states and a fervorous advocate for education I congratulate your efforts on this topic. As a mom, and social worker for families with children with disabilities I remind you not to forget the services for the under served, the sometimes forgotten. Children with Disabilities. (Autism, Asperberg, Mental retardation, etc.)# Maria Lourdesd Niggle says :
Special Education delivery service systems are not all what we want in the States, let's learn from these mistakes and make it work in this new model that you so much want to implement. Children are our future; let's include ALL children.
13 November, 2009 [ 01:39 ]
Wonderful news, I wish you the best in this journey. Do you only accept young people? or are you open to accept more mature individuals who might have a lot to offer? something important to remember is that the first 5 years in the life of a child are the foundation for the rest of their lives. Please have early childhood education as part of your plan. I live in the states and here in California for every dollar invested in a young child it saves the state over 7 dollars later on. I would love to volunteer my expertise in Early Literacy.
Felicitaciones.
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