In Gambia, each major region has youth development associations. These organizations provide a space for youth to assemble and pursue collective goals revolving around the development of youth in the country. They do this by organizing student governments that assemble and vote, fundraising for issues in community, and volunteering. Our goal is that Ascend Alumni will operate in this manner by being a place for graduates of our Academy to continue organizing and making a difference.

Ascend Alumni is not a program that was developed by our board. It was born in the actions of former Ascend Academy students organizing themselves and volunteering. Last year we kept getting reports about how Ascend Alumni would show up and volunteer to help run practices, tutoring sessions, tournaments, and even participating in brainstorming strategy and logistics with our wonderful Director, Alhagie Manjang, who would guide them during these sessions. After reading these reports and listening to exit interviews we knew that Ascend Alumni was already a thing in our community and it was our job to make it official.

The goals of Ascend Alumni are to give a space for our former Academy students to organize, fundraise, volunteer, and pursue their own initiatives. We are excited to see what they come up with.