Escalino is an innovative social enterprise that works to train and empower youth in emerging markets to identify local challenges and come up with innovative and sustainable solutions to address them.
We create and host a range of tailored workshops, innovation challenges and seminars, that use hands-on, experiential techniques to teach the fundamentals of how to start a social venture. In addition to being excellent educators, mentors and teachers, all our trainers have several years of experience in working with and starting their own social enterprises. Our trainers employ the same techniques in training as they have used to successfully launch ventures – ensuring that they practice what they preach. The Ignite Program Our ignite program are 3-5 days trainings consisting of a mix of workshops, presentations and seminars. Through hands-on experiential learning we equip the participants with the basic tools and fundamental knowledge necessary for them to launch their own social ventures. A typical camps covers themes such as Innovate Thinking, Human Centred Design Thinking, Understanding the User, Problem Discover, Solution Identification, Asset Mapping, Prototyping, Pitching, Assumption Validation – and is always rounded off with a closing ceremony in which participants gets to pitch in front of an audience. |
Jacob Lennheden is the executive director as well as Senior Trainer of Escalino as well as Managing Partner at Copenhagen Institute of NeuroCreativity - a creativity consultancy. He previously co-founded the social entrepreneurship competition, Innovate Kenya, as well as its parent organization Global Minimum Inc. Before that he has consulted for 88mph – an entrepreneur accelerator in Nairobi, worked as a managing director at Yum.co.ke – a Kenyan Food Delivery Start-up and worked extensively with youth empowerment through CISV. Jacob is also the founder of Danish Students Abroad and has previously worked as an analyst to the Department of International Business Development at the Confederation of Danish Industry.
He holds a Masters Degree in Business and Development Studies from Copenhagen Business School and an Honors Degree in International Studies and Economics from Simon Fraser University in Canada as well as an IB Diploma from UWC Red Cross Nordic. https://dk.linkedin.com/in/jlennheden |
Dick Muyambi is a senior trainer at Escalino. He is originally from Uganda and founded Bicycles Against Poverty in 2008 while still an undergraduate at Bucknell University. He holds a dual degree in Civil Engineering (B.S.E.) and Economics (B.A.). After BAP received its seed funding from the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U), Muyambi was invited to attend the annual Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) conference in NYC in September 2008 as one of five students. During his time as CEO of BAP, Muyambi oversaw the management and distribution of hundreds of bicycles, secured grants, conducted evaluations and managed volunteers. To date the organization has distributed over 1,000 bicycles. Muyambi works for Clark Construction and in his spare time is a partnership and branding advisor at The Pearl Dreamstartup.
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/d-muyambi/14/687/a80 |
Mette Bohnstedt is a senior trainer at Escalino and the co-founder of Arukay, a South America-based education startup that delivers after school courses in programming, design thinking and social entrepreneurship to youth of all income levels. She currently works as a user experience researcher and educator with Innovation in Action. Mette has also worked with HarvardX to evaluate the effectiveness of massive open online courses (MOOCs), and with Design for Change USA to build their online curriculum. Mette is a founding board member of the Danish school EPOS and of Amstream, an international nonprofit that works to foster collaboration between Scandinavia and Armenia in the field of education. She has also worked at the Danish Ministry of Education and the Danish Institute for Human Rights, and has extensive experience in volunteer and project management from her work with Action Aid Denmark and United World Colleges Denmark.
Mette holds a BSc in Business and Culture from Copenhagen Business School and an MA in Education and Technology from Harvard University. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mettebohnstedt |
Charity Migwi is a senior trainer at Escalino as well as a management consultant in New York. She has several years experience working with social entrepreneurship as a trainer for youth training camps with Innovate Kenya and as a lead trainer at U.S. State Department funded Escalino Ignite Camps in Pakistan and Cameroon.
In addition to her work with social entrepreneurship, she is also the co-founder of Double Dee's LLC, a Kenyan-based lingerie brand that produces high quality products for buxom women in a market dominated by second-hand offerings. Charity holds an M.A. and B.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as an IB Diploma from the Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific. In addition to her work with Escalino she is attached to the University of Pennsylvania, where she is pursuing Environmental Studies with a focus on the intersection of business and the environmental world. She holds an IB Diploma from UWC Lester B. Pearson and originally hails from Nairobi, Kenya. https://www.linkedin.com/pub/charity-migwi/49/846/a0b |