Written by Charles Okindo with insights from Joshua Omweno, Project Officer for Education
Through my participation in the Youth Leadership Pathways Curriculum Cohort 2 leadership class, I have gained an entirely new perspective of leadership and change.
I previously assumed that leadership was reserved for the well-off in society and it is only those people that could initiate change. I believed that for myself, being from a slum, trying to become a leader was a waste of time since a lot of effort would be dedicated to guiding stubborn counterparts. In fact, this line of thinking made me not even try competing for a leadership position in my high school.
But through CFK Africa’s Youth Leadership Pathways Curriculum (YLPC) leadership class, I have received a timely revelation. I have learned the only initial prerequisites for becoming a successful leader are will and courage.
These skills will serve anyone well on his journey to becoming a good leader. Furthermore, I have discovered that leadership is an opportunity to challenge oneself and improve one’s ability to interact with others. It challenges you to handle your tasks plus the tasks of the group you lead concurrently, and improves your ability to get things done on time and under pressure. I am looking forward to becoming a leader to not only guide, but also challenge myself further since leadership benefits both parties; the leader and the ones being led. I am indeed proud and privileged to be a part of the YLPC leadership cohort.
For the YLPC, I designed a service project to create a study website for CFK Africa Lux Sit & Jim Rogers scholars. The problem I identified that inspired this project is the low effectiveness of tutoring sessions. As a scholar, I’ve realized that during these sessions, many students arrived late and missed some concepts and others did not fully understand the methods used in solving problems.
Therefore, I decided to create this platform to offer revision materials and also to complement the tutoring sessions that are held physically. Questions discussed during the sessions will be fed to the platform to enable student access for later reference and clarification, enhancing their studies.
As a Lux Sit & Jim Rogers scholar, CFK Africa has transformed my understanding of leadership and given me drive and purpose to give back to my community in the future.
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