Alumni Impact: Brian Nkala
Alumni Impact is a social media campaign that recognizes the excellent work being done by FIUTS alumni all around the world. This week, meet Brian!
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Brian Nkala, alum of the 2017 Study of the U.S. Institute on Civic Engagement (SUSI).
Photo credit: The Eye of Beauty-SA.
My name is Brian Nkala from University of Pretoria (South Africa). I am an alumnus of the 2017 Study of the U.S. Institutes (SUSI) and a 2019 SUSI all star alumnus.
My ambition and career goals with international organizations connected, especially in the field of Conservation, Community Engagement and Sustainable development, within Africa. Therefore, I chose to study Environmental Sciences and Geography at the University of Pretoria, which I graduated with a specialization in Human Geography and Sustainable development. To further enhance my knowledge on the domain, I participated in a short programme in Civic Engagement with the Foundation for International Understanding Through Students (FIUTS) at the University of Washington in Seattle. I am currently doing my final year in M.Sc. Environment and Society.
As an ardent problem solver, I am advantageous by nature and I like to take up new challenges, which is why I helped form the Greenline Society and Digital Grassroots. The primary purpose of the Greenline Society is to further sustainable development in the Pretoria area through connecting youth from various disciplines to come up with holistic and sustainable solutions to problems facing our community using education and community engagement projects. I strongly believe in using the internet/technology to transform my local community, the real magic of turning youth from consumers of internet/technology to potential producers of technology which is why I co-founded the Digital Grassroots. The primary purpose of these organizations is to create an atmosphere that enables discussions and critical thinking that seeks to create an environment and socially sustainable solutions. The concept of life and the many opportunities it holds excites me, and it is with this passion in me that I make use of every experience, both good and bad, to continue seeking for long-lasting social solutions.
Brian and the 2019 IPOLE pictured in Zurich, Switzerland.
Additionally, I have a particular interest in collaborative learning such that, I recently completed “integrated Project Oriented Learning Environment (iPOLE),” an international and interdisciplinary study platform that permits the development of innovation projects in cooperation with industry partners. The programme was aimed at helping in strengthening and combining our interdisciplinary knowledge and skills with collaborative project-oriented working within a multicultural environment. iPOLE specifically targets industry-relevant topics in the field of human-computer interaction, with elements from computer science, interface / industrial design, digital media, and management.
In addition to tasks with iPOLE, I was tasked with solving the brain drain issue by exploring what is it like to live and work in cities like New York, Mumbai, Zurich, Istanbul, or Helsinki, Trenton, Juinagar, Brugg /Windisch, Eski ehir or Porvoo. From an individual's perspective, answering these questions, and getting to know the key qualities of a future workplace is not trivial. From the perspective of organizations, providing insights into their work culture and representing their 'identity to promote themselves is a challenging task.
In iPOLE 2019, project tasks were defined in collaboration with the regional development office of Canton Aargau; and are in the context of an interactive platform called Work-Life Aargau in Switzerland. Thus, as interdisciplinary teams, we had to design scenarios; implement prototypes; find and test new and innovative ways such as doing twitter data mining and other internet sources to profile employers to be used in an online interactive platform. We, thus, demonstrate new concepts and applications that give an outlook to the future of work-life decisions.
Brian and fellow SUSIs engaging in community service work on MLK Day in 2017.
Through a studentship program, I have had the privilege (since July 2020) of being part of the team tasked with reviewing and updating the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan which was validated on the 19th of April 2021. The Southern African Development Community is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana. Its goal is to further regional socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and security cooperation among 16 countries in Southern Africa and the founders of SADC are Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Angola, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Lesotho, and Eswatini.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat through the assistance of the established Climate Change Expert Group, Bembani Group (GCCA+ Consultant Firm) reviewed and updated the SADC Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan in November 2020. The main purpose of the review exercise was to align the strategy with the global, continental development agendas and other recent climate change developments. The review and update process incorporated the additional and new information and issues from UNFCCC, COP24 and COP25, UNSDGs, and the AU Agenda 2063.
Further to that, the Joint Meeting of SADC Ministers Responsible for Environment, Natural Resources, and Tourism at their meeting of 25 October 2019 in Arusha, Tanzania directed SADC Secretariat to expedite the review of the SADC Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan in line with the current global, regional and national development processes by the end of 2020 and report on the progress made during the next meeting of Ministers.
Brian pictured at the 2019 SUSI for Global Student Leaders Closing Forum. Brian has been recognized as a 2019 SUSI All-Star Alumni in recognition of his Leadership and community engagement work. Click here to access the event photo gallery.
Through being involved with the Foundation for International Understanding Through Students (FIUTS), I developed extensive skills such as effective communication and relationship management. I was faced with many challenging opportunities to learn, grow, and through my colleagues and I was made conscious of their different cultures and differences that existed among us. The program included site visits, academic study, leadership training, and public presentations. It was at this point that I saw an opportunity to strengthen my organisational leadership, emotional, and interpersonal skills. FIUTS gave me the confidence to explore career opportunities through fun activities such as volunteering and team building activities. I now have broader exposure to the working world and have the ability to help the communities I save envision how they will fit into the world and lastly, the program helped me understand how I can better set realistic goals for myself and projects I have been involved in. I, therefore, see FIUTS as the foundation of most of my skills I have been using in achieving my existing projects and the ones I am yet to embark on.
Organisations I have co-founded have been addressing broad issues from environmental to internet issues.
Environmental - the Greenline Society: A student-based, environmental society at the University of Pretoria looking to bring about environmental consciousness among students of all disciplines, “Where we work on BUILDING bridges between disciplines, CREATING sustainable solutions to the environmental challenges we face, DEVELOPING leaders with an environmental conscience, EDUCATING communities on issues of the environment, RAISING awareness and TAKING action.”
Brian and fellow Digital Grassroots Founders pictured at the United Nations Office at Geneva.
Internet - The Digital Grassroots A youth network developed to proactively engage youth in addressing internet problems at a grassroots level. This project is the brainchild of the third cohort of Internet Society Youth at Internet Governance Forum 2017. The Internet is increasingly being used to connect the global village of the world. Accessibility, Openness, and Bottom-Up coordination empowers netizens to be part of the borderless platform, reinforcing ISOCs philosophy “Internet is for everyone”. Whilst the internet medium is increasingly being consumed, there is a huge divide in internet penetration in regions across the globe, with some areas facing threats such as lack of infrastructure, internet shutdowns and censorship. Even for countries with high internet penetration, lack of education on the tools of the internet affects security both online and offline, it exposes netizens of all ages to derogatory and malicious content and creates an environment of ‘Likes’ where fake news can fester, thus affecting the true perception of reality which in turn marginalizes true democracy.
In negative engagements, the internet enables discrimination of youth and the disconnected. In extreme cases, it is a recruitment platform for terrorists, paedophile rings, identity theft, and the birthplace of a wave of harmful viruses, to name a few vices. To curb these problems and become part of the solution instead of passive users, Digital Grassroots is spearheading solutions in solidarity with youths below 29 years old and other partners. Our program includes: 1) Internet Literacy Class (ILC) 2) Digital Natives Network (DNN) 3) Internet Activism (IA) on issues affecting a safe internet for all
Currently busy with the Climate change negotiation training coordinated by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) after completion I hope to further use my skills to influence policy in the SADC region, and lastly, I look forward to using the skill in the international community as well as I was recently selected as “Young Leaders Needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals!” I therefore will be now traveling to New York to discuss how the Sustainable Development Goals can be used for progressive, transformative politics in my region. Please see here for more details.
SUSI programs promote a better understanding of the people, institutions, and culture of the United States among international students, teachers, and scholars. Study of the U.S. Institutes (SUSIs) are short-term academic programs for groups of undergraduate leaders, educators, and scholars from around the world. Hosted by academic institutions throughout the United States, these 5- to 6-week Institutes include an intensive academic residency and an integrated educational study tour. Extracurricular cultural and community activities help to broaden the participants’ understanding of U.S. society. Learn more about SUSI programs here.
Guest posts on the FIUTS blog represent the experiences and views of individual writers. They do not necessarily reflect the views of FIUTS or any organizations or institutions affiliated with our programs.