In November 2016, when the Mawazo Institute was still mostly an idea, I called a friend who ran a scholarship programme in Ghana for advice on launching a new organisation. He shared many useful suggestions, but one point in particular stood out to me: "The organisational culture you build when you're starting out will affect everything you do later."
Read MoreA bit of background: Mawazo was founded in late 2016 by Rose Mutiso and Rachel Strohm. We've known each other since our undergraduate days at Dartmouth College, where we got our start in African education activism by creating the Students for Africa association. In mid-2016, we realized that we were both looking for the next steps in our careers, and shared a passion for supporting African women in academia. A great deal of brainstorming later, the Mawazo Institute was born.
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