One key takeaway: Entrepreneurship is not a substitution for Education, It enhances education.

Let’s empower our youth to excel in both realms!

Learn more at www.smileng.org.

S.M.I.L.E is all about building a better future for our youth!

We’re dedicated to our craft, empowering young leaders to thrive today and lead tomorrow. At L.E.A.D PROJECT 2.0 , Bridging the Gap.

We are grateful to our selfless Youth mentors and School Counselors for the successful completion of our 6 weeks fieldwork program across the 5 public secondary schools on S.M.I.L.E’s 2024 Young Leaders Mentoring Program.

This unique component of our program provides an opportunity for the 25 Change Champions on the program, to pass on the knowledge gained during the program to their friends and mentees.

Through this peer mentoring model,

the Change Champions are able to hone their new skills, discover other unique attributes they possess, and serve as a role models to their peers.

We are delighted over 100 students have been mentored by the Change Champions across the 5 schools.

Special thanks once again to the School Counselors and Youth Mentors for providing the needed guidance for these young leaders to effectively transfer knowledge to their mentees during the fieldwork sessions and for the creativity infused into the learning experience.

#YouthLeadChange #MentoredForGrowth

#S.M.I.L.EEducationalOutreach

Our world is in need of heroes! People who look beyond themselves to identify and solve the problems in their communities. These heroes need to be hand held and taught how to build sustainable initiatives and make impact.

The mentees in the Social Enterprise Cohort of S.M.I.L.E’s 2023/2024 Executive Mentoring Program for Youth (EMPY), had an insightful session during their third module as they were groomed on how to navigate their impact journey as social entrepreneurs.

Our profound gratitude to our dear trustee, Mr Praise Fowowe; Principal Consultant, Praise Fowowe Research LLC, USA who gave a practical teaching on the topic- Understanding the Framework of Social Entrepreneurship.

He admonished the mentee to define their mission, develop a sustainable business model, engage their target community/stakeholders, tell their stories right, document their journey, leverage networking and focus on the tasks at hand while embracing transparency and accountability.

Businesses require a lot to stay afloat in today’s economy. The very volatile economy and severe effects the current inflation rate has on small and micro businesses cannot be overemphasized. It is on this premise that we designed the third module of the Executive Mentoring Program for the mentees in our Business Cohort to help the young entrepreneurs on our program navigate challenging times.

The pragmatic approach to the topic-An Overview of Entrepreneurship: Building thriving Businesses was an eye opener to the young entrepreneurs who needed clarity on how to structure their businesses, improve their customer base while increasing sales.

Special thanks to Mrs. Kenny Omojola-President, Crested Edge Educational and Entrepreneurial Development Initiative (CrEED Initiative) for providing practical answers to all the probing questions these young entrepreneurs had and taking the mentees through the concept of entrepreneurship, elements of a business idea, importance and content of a business plan as well as various business fields they can venture into as young entrepreneurs.

She encouraged them to embrace a growth mindset, carryout market research, find a niche, maximize social media and adopt a blue ocean strategy.

The Young Leaders Mentoring Program is aimed at grooming young leaders who can lead themselves, lead others and become problem solvers in their society.

We live in a world with myriad of challenges and as the world works towards achieving Agenda 2030,we are glad to have raised a new batch of young leaders who will be advocating and proffering solutions to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

During the fourth module of the 2024 Young Leaders Mentoring Program, our amazing Head of Communications and a member of S.M.I.L.E’s Alumni-Mrs Ajibola Babalola, took the Change Champions through the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Her enlightening and educative session helped the young leaders understand the meaning, importance of the goals and practical steps they can take especially in their daily activities to help achieve the goals as well as create the world we want.

Furthermore, she simplified the teaching by teaching them about the 5 pillars of the Sustainable Development Goals namely:

People Goals

Prosperity Goals

Planet Goals

Peace Goal

Partnership Goal

A major highlight was the interactive session where the students and teachers (S.M.I.L.E school counselors) shared the SDG they were drawn to and how they have been championing the SDGs in their respective schools.

A pledge taken by the Change Champions to play their part in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by teaching their peers about the SDGs and also solving problems around specific goals.

As an organization we will not relent in pushing towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.