Raised in the community, they’re now ‘Giving Back’ by Volunteering there

“I am a product of this community,”

she said while watching the kids settle into their seats.

“Teaching is a very humbling profession, but even more so if you are serving the community from which you came from. You’re able to give back to the community.” Istahil Adem is one of the recipients of those scholarships and is currently in her 3rd year of a teaching degree

Every year we provide a full scholarship towards a teaching degree to qualified young women to Barwaaqo University, the first all-female boarding university in the Northern region.

Through this volunteering program, we want to encourage students to give back to their community; it also provides them with teaching experience once they have completed their degree.

“I feel like I’m giving back, in a way. Being able to help people who are in the same situation as me, kids that are growing up in the same environment … be there for them the way a lot of people were for me.” 

Furthermore, research shows students perform better under a teacher who comes from their community or district, and teacher retention tends to be higher. It may also nudge some students toward teaching to have teachers who “were once in their shoes and maybe look like them”,

“I want to be able to impact children the same way (my teachers) impacted me,” she added.

The reason why I love teaching

“I love to learn, and my students teach me something new every day,” teaching student Istahil Adem says.

Five reasons why teaching is so rewarding.

1.     You become can be a life-long learner – Being an educator allows one to keep learning and to grow in knowledge because you get to spend your career cultivating a love of learning in your students. To teach, you must know, so if you enjoy learning new things or researching, you’ll love creating new lesson plans for your classroom. Through this you’ll also pass along to your students this passion and curiosity, and you never know what insights and perspectives they’ll provide in return.

2.     You encourage children to dream – Dreams lead to big ideas—which can lead to innovations and changes for the future. A teacher can inspire kids to think beyond their comfort zones and challenge them to reach their fullest potential.

3.     Seeing a light bulb go off in a kid’s head.
You know that a-ha moment—when a kid finally gets something or comes up with a brilliant idea of their own? It’s priceless. Sometimes it takes a long time to get there, but it is always worth the effort.

4.     Getting to inspire kids
Some kids come to school loving to learn. Others aren’t so sure. I hope to inspire kids to love learning, and perhaps more importantly, to believe that they can learn and do things. By giving kids opportunities and support, and new experiences, I get to inspire them.

5.     Getting inspired
The flip side of inspiring kids is getting inspired. I get inspired by kids enthusiasm and creativity. I get inspired by the effort of kids and the struggles some of them overcome. I get inspired by acts of kindness and compassion in my classroom and by chance to touch our future.