Atlas Corps celebrates its 15th anniversary! It is time to celebrate the achievements of our amazing network of over 1,100 leaders from 110 countries and share stories on the global impact of our Alumni, Fellows, and Scholars.
Today we speak with our Scholar Musah (Cohort 2, Ghana) from our Virtual Leadership Institute. Musah is the Co-Founder and Executive Director (Ghana and Africa Operations) of Nolbed Foundation, a nonprofit organization aiming to bridge the gap between exceptional students and quality education within underprivileged communities.
Thank you, Musah, for contributing towards creating access to quality education within underprivileged communities in Ghana through Nolbed Foundation. We appreciate learning about your youth development work and your personal and professional growth. We wish you the best with this impactful work!
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Name: Musah Mohammed Amin Home Country: Ghana Current Organization: Nolbed Foundation Role at current organization: Executive Director (Ghana and Africa Operations) Social Issues that you have worked with: Quality education, Reduced inequalities, and Partnerships for the goals. |
What are your responsibilities in the organization?
My responsibilities include coordinating overall daily operational activities regarding Nolbed’s Pre-College Gap-Year Program, aiding HALI students at the community-level transition into college successfully at the global level. I also provide students with recommendation support, mentorship, guidance, and counseling toward successful college admission and financial aid application processes. I am also serving as a Project Lead in facilitating the execution of Community Development Projects (CDP) through Nolbed’s experiential learning exercise model.
Why is it important for you to work with creating access to quality education projects?
Education has proven to be the most potent tool in transforming society worldwide, especially higher education, yet access is woefully inadequate in SSA economies. Most talented children from underprivileged communities in SSA in general and Ghana, in particular, have their future aspirations terminated due to financial inability and lack of relevant mentoring. These children only end up in the street without or with delayed access to higher education. This predicament extends and adds up to the illiteracy rate and poor living standards of the entire country as well as the African content as a whole, thereby hindering the ideal leadership and socio-economic growth Africa needs to benefit from the economic boom as projected for Africa by 2040 according to all major global economic indexes.
Therefore, I co-founded the Nolbed Program to uplift underprivileged communities in Ghana by bridging the gap between their exceptionally talented students and quality higher education. Our goal is to give candidates the opportunity to attend top-tier colleges around the world on a full scholarship through our gap-year program. Our vision is to develop and groom ethical leaders with the knowledge and skills needed to positively reconstruct their lives and communities in Ghana in particular and Africa in general, whilst connecting them with the next generational global thinkers and changemakers. I believe this model of African scholarship will position African educated youth to participate and shape Africa’s socio-economic future effectively.
How has Virtual Leadership Institute contributed to your professional and personal accomplishments?
Atlas Corps training provided me with a great learning and networking platform. This has enabled me to enhance my leadership skills related to coaching, mentoring, project management, and, most important interpersonal skills, as well as building strategic partnerships as I learn from diverse backgrounds among an exciting teeming community of fellow scholars. And, this has been very crucial in aiding me developed a sustainability plan for my organization to continue to be much impactful at the community level. Again, my experience with Atlas Corps’ leadership modules has enabled me to rediscover myself in such a context I hitherto did not pay attention to, like how to engage in culturally sensitive interaction whilst mitigating hurting people’s feelings and gaining an enhanced perspective on accommodating, compromising and conflict resolution.
What is your favorite Virtual Leadership Institute memory?
The great presentation of Atlas Corps’ President/Founder in the first launch call. It set me in the momentum of learning like never before. That presentation raised my curiosity about the Atlas Corps Virtual Leadership Institute and the American Foreign Policy related to such exchange programs like Atlas Corps.
What advice do you have for applicants and current Scholars?
Atlas Corps provides a huge network of professional associates globally and getting involved in any of the training module put you on a global platform to learn and showcase the impact of the work you are doing whilst equipping you with such tools, skills, and resources needed to accelerate the impact of your work dramatically. I believe having a great sense of direction of a personal social agenda is key in becoming successful in the training Atlas Corps offers.
What message would you like to send to individuals who support Atlas Corps?
The impact of Atlas Corps training is phenomenal, especially among those of us in the not-for-profit social entrepreneurship space. Mostly, our organizations at the community level are so small though very impactful, but not in the financial position to put us in professional/personal development training, which will normally come at a higher financial cost. Therefore, such learning opportunities provided for us by Atlas Corps are at the heart of empowering us to be able to not only sustain our work but to improve our scale of operation. Hence continue to be much more impactful at the community level. This contributes significantly to promoting socio-economic inclusivity and diversity at the global level relative to development gains.
Celebrate Atlas Corps Bonus Day! Donations matched on July 14!
Celebrate 15 years of global impact with Atlas Corps! Join us on July 14 to recognize this milestone anniversary and partner with our community of 1,100 social change leaders from 110 countries. Support Atlas Corps and empower our global community of changemakers who possess the training, skills, and network to solve the world’s most pressing issues. Will you make your #GlobalImpact with Atlas Corps?
Photos from the personal archive of Musah Mohammed Amin
