Kate Schelbe
Girls Education International is thrilled to announce that we have a new Executive Director! Please join us in congratulating and welcoming the talented Kate Schelbe to her new role! We are so excited for all that Kate will do for the board and the organization.
Kate Schelbe learned about our Tanzania partner organization, Project Wezesha through Wayne, a mutual friend of Lucas and Rai (co-founders of Project Wezesha). At a turning point in her professional life, Kate decided to take six months to live and work abroad and she inquired about volunteering with Project Wezesha. She moved to Western Tanzania and lived in Mgaraganza Village where she taught in Amahoro Secondary School!
While in Tanzania, Kate worked closely with our Tanzania project managers, Lucas and Madaga. She offered teacher training workshops for local teachers, she influenced programming and instruction at her school, and she had a profound impact on many students who had the opportunity to know Kate. She was also an extremely powerful and impactful fundraiser, raising money through connections back home to fund the completion of additional latrines as well as desks and chairs for Amahoro Secondary School.
Kate with her colleagues at Amahoro Secondary
While living in Mgaraganza and working closely with Lucas, Kate learned about the work of Girls Education International in Tanzania from the inside! She was instrumental in offering leadership and program management trainings to Lucas and Madaga so they could better oversee the programs, manage budgets, track students, and better support the young women in our program with personal, academic, and professional advising and mentorship.
Kate graduated from Emory University with a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish Literature and Latin American Studies. She received a fellowship from the Klingenstein Summer Institute at Columbia University where she studied second language acquisition and innovative teaching practices. The majority of Kate’s professional experience has been in a school setting as a classroom teacher as well as the director of a middle school. As an outdoor enthusiast, Kate is a Wilderness First Responder and has planned and executed academic programing, logistics, and risk management for over 25 extended academic journeys for middle school students. She believes that access to education is a basic human right.
In October, Kate led the board of directors through a full day retreat to launch a strategic planning initiative that we will be working through for the coming months. We’ll be sharing more on this as it unfolds in the coming months. We know that Kate’s leadership experience and passion for girls education will be instrumental to our continued growth and success.
Again, please join us in welcoming our new Executive Director!