Spotlight: Vicky Colbert

As leaders in the nonprofit world, Kravis Prize winners have earned well-deserved recognition from many organizations. For example, 2011 Kravis Prize winner Vicky Colbert is also a Skoll Entrepreneur! In fact, Colbert was a featured speaker at the Skoll World Forum last year, where she discussed her commitment to education. She also shared the drive and rationale behind Fundacíon Escuela Nueve and the Escuela Nueva model:

“Without quality education, nothing can be achieved in any country. No economic development, no social development, nor peace. And this is extremely important. No social cohesion.”

In addition, Colbert discussed the massive reform that schools underwent during the pilot Escuela Nueva program in Colombia:

“Responding to problems of inequality and inclusion, we started working with [public] schools … we had to think systemically since the beginning – large-scale reform. If we wanted to make changes with the child, we also had to make changes with the way of the teachers, the way the teachers’ training was taking place, the teacher training institutions, the way you’re bringing the community and the parents in, the way you’re bringing the local administrators in. So we had to think systematically and thinking from the outset that anything we would do would impact national policy.”