February update!

Selam (Greetings), and well wishes to the supporters of ILAE!

First of all, a belated thanks to all for your generosity that made the Winter Gala a phenomenal success. The cultural show from the young Ethiopians attending UW was uplifting, each of the 3 proposed alternate design models of ILAE submitted by the UW graduate Architecture students were very impressive and the message from the ILAE founders and featured speakers was inspiring.

Our blog entry recording the gala’s success posted http://ilacademy.org/blog/2007_12_01_archive.html

To the left is my buddy Yonas making a speech and below are some pictures of the Ethiopian Dance Troupe, as well as the crowd of over 300 people.

It has been fascinating to note the rapid growth of excitement that the school has garnered over the past year of its existence. As I gazed at the models that the UW School of Architecture created over the past six months whilst collaborating with the UW School of Education, I was moved at the immense collaborative process that creating these models required.

The past month since the gala has been spent reflecting, reorganizing, and reprioritizing as we shift gears to plan the next few months. For those of you who generously volunteered your resources to help us get to where we are, we sincerely thank you for all that you’ve done! For those of you who offered to volunteer your resources, keep on the lookout for an email to come soon.

Over the next few months, our focus will be:

Management structure: As a result of the gala, we now have a long list of individuals who have offered themselves volunteers to make ILAE a success. We are developing a process for organizing and engaging volunteers effectively to accomplish a common goal and will be launching the volunteer program officially soon...


Business plan: The ILAE’s business plan was recently chosen from an initial pool of 80 applicants to participate in the UW Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition on February 25th and 26th. We will be showcasing our business plan as well as gaining feedback. We are also currently seeking businesspeople with experience in creating a multinational business plan for internal operations purposes that can help us create our own. If you are skilled in this area and are willing to help out, please email Laura at lkumelody@gmail.com.

Marketing strategy: We have several stakeholders committed to quality educationto whom we need to market our school: staff members, parents of tuition-paying students, donors, and other contributors. Each group requires a marketing strategy. Do you have marketing background? Perhaps this is the job for you!

Fundraising: Initial startup estimates of the school (are estimated at around $10.5 million. To donate, please visit our website, http://www.ilacademy.org/. Click on the “donate” button, and you will be redirected to our fiscal sponsor, Teachers Without Borders. There, you can donate through Paypal, BE SURE TO WRITE “IKON ETHIOPIA” IN THE NOTES SECTION. Also, we need volunteers who are willing and able to donate their time into helping us develop a long term FUNDRAISING STRATEGY. Please contact us if you’re interested and willing!
Financing: Related to the business plan- we are going to do some in-depth financial analysis regarding our school’s requirements. Do you have finance skills that you would be willing to contribute? We need you on our team! Let us know!


Curriculum design: Curriculum, who will teach what and how…. These are key issues we hope to solve within the next few months in partnership with the UW school of Education and several partner high-schools who are interested in globalized education. If you are an educator and would like to join our committee, please let us know.


Above all, SPREAD THE WORD! Network. Direct friends to our website. Find out how you think you can contribute, and email us with your ideas. We look forward to hearing from all of you!
Again, we sincerely thank everyone for your efforts in helping make ILAE a reality. Keep a lookout for more exciting updates on our progress!

Sincerely,
Laura Umetsu
Project Manager
International Leadership Academy of Ethiopia