by lwang | Jun 29, 2012 | Education, Escuela Nueva, 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...
by lwang | Jan 26, 2012 | BRAC, Escuela Nueva, FAWE, Fazle Abed, Landesa, Pratham, Roy Prosterman
The Global Journal just released their January/February 2012 issue, which for the first time ranked the top 100 best nongovernmental organizations in the world. We’re delighted to announce that FIVE Kravis Prize winners were ranked among the top 50 NGOs! BRAC even made it into the top five and has a nice feature on the website, which also mentions 2007 Kravis Prize winner Sir Fazle Abed. “Established by former Shell Oil executive Sir Fazle Hasan Abed in 1972 soon after the independence of Bangladesh, BRAC was part of an influential wave of organizations – alongside the Grameen Bank and ASA – that went on to revolutionize development strategies not only in their home countries, but across the world. Unlike its counterparts, however, which focused on refining and expanding their pioneering micro-credit and micro-finance models, BRAC also added a range of social programs to the mix and has continued to diversify and leverage its unique ability to achieve economies of scale over time.” Check out what else they had to say about BRAC here and the other Kravis Prize winners that are part of this year’s list, including Escuela Nueva (Founder Vicky Colbert, 2011), Pratham (2010), FAWE (2008) and Landesa (Founder Roy Prosterman,...
by lwang | Sep 29, 2011 | Award Ceremony, Education, Escuela Nueva, Kravis Prize, Vicky Colbert
We’re thrilled to share with you this great video that shows Vicky Colbert receiving the 2011 Kravis Prize in Leadership earlier this year. In her acceptance speech at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Vicky talks about Escuela Nueva and its impact on the lives of children through innovative education techniques. During his remarks at the award ceremony, Henry Kravis said he most respects and appreciates Vicky’s ability to “lead with innovation.” We also thoroughly enjoyed the interview with Vicky conducted by Henry and Marie-Josee Kravis, who established the Prize in 2006. During their conversation, Mrs. Kravis pointed out that education models such as Escuela Nueva rely on networks of parents, teachers and communities, and that these networks provide “hope that societies will move in the direction” of educating their children in a way that focuses on innovation. Vicky is a truly inspiring leader who sees the mission of Escuela Nueva in a broad context: “We want to learn how to build citizenship through education. We are working to establish affordable schools of excellent quality, where children, teachers, parents and the community are empowered to learn to learn and contribute to a culture of peace and economic development.” Enjoy the video below and let us know how Vicky and her work with Escuela Nueva inspires...
by lwang | Jun 27, 2011 | BRAC, BRAC UK, BRAC USA, Escuela Nueva, Fazle Abed, Kravis Prize, Vicky Colbert
Congratulations to Vicky Colbert from Escuela Nueva Foundation! We are so happy that Vicky is being honored with this tremendous award. It is a well-deserved and hard-earned recognition. This year’s award announcement brought back memories of my own experience in 2007. When I was awarded the second annual Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership, the news brought a whirlwind of excitement, gratitude, inspiration and exhilaration for all of us at the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC). The Prize’s financial award had an immediate impact as it helped BRAC establish offices in the United States and United Kingdom. These offices have helped to support and grow BRAC’s programs beyond Bangladesh. Since 2002, BRAC has expanded to nine other countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Southern Sudan, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Uganda and recently Haiti. The Prize helped not only to begin our work in the U.S. through BRAC USA, but also to give our new institution credibility in the U.S. Though BRAC began in 1972 and is today one of the biggest development organizations in the world, not many people living in the U.S. had ever heard of it and even fewer were aware of its remarkable history and successful track record. The recognition we received from the Kravis Prize allowed us to establish BRAC USA and begin telling our story to a new audience in America and the U.K. Throughout 2010, BRAC USA has been working to tell the story of our organization’s successful approach to development. Members of the BRAC USA team have attended and participated in several conferences and panels in the last year. We also have...
by lwang | Apr 19, 2011 | CMC, Education, Escuela Nueva, Kravis Prize, Vicky Colbert
During her recent travels to the U.S. to receive the 2011 Kravis Prize in Leadership, Vicky Colbert visited Claremont McKenna College and spoke with students Cody Chang and Nikki Holzberg. In the video below, Colbert talked about the benefits of the Kravis Prize and its positive effect in allowing the Escuela Nueva to create change in the field of education. Colbert stressed the importance of Escuela Nueva’s cooperative learning approach, saying that students who dialogue with one another and learn to work with and accept each other’s ideas, will start to develop citizenship skills that lead to increased participation in their communities and the development of peaceful democracies. Escuela Nueva, said Colbert, is creating a new generation of leaders through democratic classroom elections that are providing a cultural shift in Latin America to promote cooperation and peaceful dialogue. Click on the video below to see Vicky Colbert’s interview. You can also view more videos on Colbert and Escuela Nueva here. ...
by lwang | Apr 8, 2011 | Education, Escuela Nueva, Vicky Colbert
In our first and second blog posts, we had the pleasure of meeting the Escuela Nueva Foundation’s Vicky Colbert, winner of the 2011 Kravis Prize. In this final interview segment, we will explore the methods used by Vicky and Escuela Nueva to provide high quality education in developing countries around the world. Kravis Prize: We’ve discussed the need for high quality education, but specifically how does Escuela Nueva work to achieve this important goal? Vicky Colbert: In my experience, much attention and emphasis in educational reform is given to administrative, budgetary and spending issues, which do not directly affect student achievement. Unfortunately, very little effort is directed toward making changes within the classroom and improving teaching practices. By analyzing the daily interactions that take place in the classroom between teachers and students, among pupils themselves and in the community with students and their families, we can truly affect change. Kravis Prize: So the Escuela Nueva model is entirely focused on the classroom? Vicky Colbert: We have found that both classrooms and schools are important agents for educational change. Initiatives to improve the quality and relevance of education must be done at this level to be truly successful. Further, a shift in the teaching-learning paradigm must occur. More of the same is not enough to change the lives of students. Improving the quality of education requires more than an emphasis on expanding current systems. It necessitates a cultural shift of emphasis away from transmission of information toward comprehension and collective construction of knowledge. For the last two decades, Ernesto Schiefelbein, the former director of UNESCO for the Latin American and...
