BLUE RIDGE INITIATIVES
Impactful Initiatives, Sustainable Outcomes
We develop innovative, sustainable solutions to tackle some of the world's most complicated development challenges.
Here at Blue Ridge Impact, we are dedicated to creating sustainable outcomes that make a positive impact on communities. Check out some of the impactful initiatives we have been involved in below.
The UN Experiential Fellowship is a selective, and unique virtual opportunity for US-based students to attend UN events around the world, receive lessons on development, and engage in mentorship sessions with notable academic leaders and government officials. Students will focus on development issues such as food insecurity and access to broadband (ICTs) in the United States.
The Fellowship is being facilitated by Blue Ridge Impact Consulting, which helps organizations become an agent of change by transforming passionate and compelling ideas into sustainable and impactful outcomes. The firm is led by Ameena M. Zia, Ph.D., an NGO UN Representative at the Economic and Social Affairs Committee (ECOSOC) and Professor with over 15 years of strategy consulting experience.
This Fellowship is committed to experiential learning through a holistic approach, with an emphasis on the influence of cognition, environmental factors, and emotions on the learning process. The methodology is based on David Kolb’s (1984) four-stage cycle of a holistic learning idea emphasizing that “learning is a process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience.
RE-DEFINING LEADERSHIP
UN Experiential Fellowship
Experiential education is an epistemological philosophy and pedagogical methodology, in which educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills, and clarify values.
TRANSFORMATIVE EDUCATION
Working Group on Identity, Knowledge, & Access
A series of engaging dialogues with young leaders to conceptualize and redefine leadership within the intersection of identity, knowledge, and access. Our working group aims to re-define leadership within the context of these critical themes and promote transformative narratives for change through creative expressions and youth education. We are proud to have launched this initiative at the 62nd UN Commission on Social Development "Transformative Narratives for Change: Creative Expressions and Education for Youth" in partnership with AIM Education & Research Society and Family Education Services Foundation.
EMPOWERING TOMORROW'S LEADERS
Young Leaders Exchange
As part of the Women Peace and Security framework, the youth leaders exchange serves to advance women's and girls' civic and political leadership. By dismantling barriers and building leadership pipeline to support women's meaningful participation in political, peacebuilding and transition processes, the exchange is rooted in facilitating initiatives that advance leadership of local women and girls within their communities.
RE-IMAGING EDUCATION
Working Group on Classroom Exchange
The exchange brings young leaders from Pakistan, Liberia and the Appalachia (Western North Carolina and rural Virginia) in the United States together to re-imagine leadership for transformative change. In partnership with US Women, Peace & Security Framework, G7 Global Objectives on Girl's Education, and the SDG Action Zone, the initiative is first of its kind towards civil bi-lateral relations between the United States and Pakistan and between Liberia and the United States.
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TRANSFORMATIVE EDUCATION
Virginia Tech Experiential Fellows
Our Virginia Tech Experiential Fellowship program offers a unique opportunity for students to gain hands-on experience in leadership and sustainable development. Through this program, we provide a supportive environment for students to develop professional skills, network with industry leaders, and engage in meaningful projects that make a difference in the world.
EMPOWERING TOMORROW'S LEADERS
NYU-Wagner Capstone Project
At Blue Ridge Impact, we believe in the power of collaboration to create positive change. That's why our latest capstone project with NYU-Wagner is such an important initiative. By working together with budding community leaders, we are able to harness the power and potential of the next generation of changemakers and create lasting impact. Through this program, we hope to inspire and educate the leaders of tomorrow, and help build a brighter future for all.
A CASE STUDY
Women's Gender Representation & Quotas in Pakistan
The UN Experiential Fellowship is a selective, and unique virtual opportunity for US-based students to attend UN events around the world, receive lessons on development, and engage in mentorship sessions with notable academic leaders and government officials. Students will focus on development issues such as food insecurity and access to broadband (ICTs) in the United States.
The Fellowship is being facilitated by Blue Ridge Impact Consulting, which helps organizations become an agent of change by transforming passionate and compelling ideas into sustainable and impactful outcomes. The firm is led by Ameena M. Zia, Ph.D., an NGO UN Representative at the Economic and Social Affairs Committee (ECOSOC) and Professor with over 15 years of strategy consulting experience.
This Fellowship is committed to experiential learning through a holistic approach, with an emphasis on the influence of cognition, environmental factors, and emotions on the learning process. The methodology is based on David Kolb’s (1984) four-stage cycle of a holistic learning idea emphasizing that “learning is a process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience.
CHANGING THE CHANGE
Project Read to Me
Project Read to Me is a children’s literature project carefully crafted with characteristics that support read aloud experience through which readers apprentice children into complex processing of ideas.
Goals:
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Engage young learners in a read aloud concept book for young children, age 4-8 to help acquire language, values, practices, and dispositions of the literal world.
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Engage young learners to build capacity to understand complex issues through narration and sequence by constructing meaning through interactions between text and illustrations.
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Encourage young learners to be curious global citizens.
Read-aloud concept books process complex texts to help children learn how to investigate and approach life around them as both emergent readers, and later as independent ones thus contributing to their lifelong development as skilled readers.
Project Read to Me utilizes thematically rich issues, engages complex illustrations, and introduces rich language to carefully craft original, artistic and tightly constructed text for early childhood learners. Transferring information from books to the real world helps children connect and understand the world around them and their relation to their environment.
EMPOWERING TOMORROW'S LEADERS
City University New York-Lehman College Public Leadership Exchange
The CUNY-Lehman College Public Leadership Exchange is a program that allows students to gain hands-on experience through experiential learning. At Blue Ridge Impact, we are proud to be part of this program, providing students with the opportunity to work on real-world projects that address social issues in their communities. Through classroom instruction and mentorship from our experienced professionals, students gain valuable skills and insight into the world of leadership.