Alpha Sennon: Food Security and Nutrition in Trinidad & Tobago

I recently attended the Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI) in the United States over a six weeks period. The six weeks at the Presidential Precinct have come to an end, and I have nothing but great news to share with you.

Allow me to share some highlights of the YLAI program below and also some upcoming events.

YLAI 2016. Over 250 entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs from Latin America and the Caribbean were selected to attend the YLAI. Trinidad and Tobago was represented my 5 entrepreneurs including myself.

The first week of the program started off in Dallas, Texas with an opening inspirational summit, where many speakers attended to share their entrepreneurial experiences, followed by many break out groups to get better understandings of various topics such as social innovation, making and measuring impact, turning impact into dollars and cents, marketing etc.

The 250 entrepreneurs was then separated in 21 different cities throughout the US to spend 4 weeks, each person being placed with host organizations that operate in a similar field or similar scope of work as to what our organizations do locally.

I was placed in Charlottesville Virginia hosted by The Presidential Precinct and worked with three amazing organizations called The PB&J Fund, Local Food Hub and City Schoolyard Garden.

The city has many nonprofit organizations all working together to achieve a common goal. With great support from the University of Virginia and other major foundations and donors, these organizations are able to make huge impact on their communities.

I had several networking sessions with other persons and organizations around the city, I was able to meet some great people and lean more about how I can strengthen WHYFARM as a nonprofit organization and great advice on my steps to move forward. One such great organization was the Centre for Nonprofit Excellence.

Met with Creative Genius
One of the ultimate highlights came when I met a creative genius called Chic Thompson who is the author of What a Great Idea, one of the first books on creative thinking. He has been helping organizations develop creative solutions for many decades. He was an animator at Disney before they released their first VHS, started his own company doing animations for health awareness, and has since been a facilitator of creative thinking. In his retirement, he is working on getting WAGI Labs off the ground, which aims to promote social innovation within kids aged 8-11.

The biggest news of all is that WAGI Labs and WHYFARM are now official partners and several projects are already being conducted. 1) Starting a WAGI Labs in Trinidad 2) Developing a Playbook (creative activity based curriculum) for AGRIman. 3) AGRI meet WAGI social innovation contest for kid. 4) Developed of an AGcelerator for Students.

Conducted seminar at Texas A&M
During my time in Charlottesville, I was invited by the University of Texas A&M and the Borlaug Institute to conduct a seminar at A&M University. Being opportunity driven as I am, I flew over to Texas and did a presentation to students and faculty on my entrepreneurial journey and then conducted a break out group session to help students with their ideas. The seminar was filled with students and faculty members. Being introduced by Julie Borlaug, the granddaughter of noble peace prize winner, Dr. Norman Borlaug as an International Agricultural Sensation was indeed a privilege.

Won a Pitch Competition
Last but not least I won a pitch competition in Charlottesville, which took me to a final pitch competition in Washington DC on the 6th week to close off the summit. I didn’t win the final prize but won lots of great advice and mentors from experts.

President Obama signs Certificate
The summit ended in Washington, with a closing summit and tours to the US state department. Successfully graduating from this fellowship program, we are challenged to not wait on change but to create it. Having President Obama sign our certificate was indeed an achievement but implementing the knowledge learnt from receiving the certificate will be a success.

Moving Forward
Overall the fellowship was a success, I represented Trinidad and Tobago well, my University well and the Caribbean.

AGcelerator Program and AGRIman Playbook- Being YLAI Alumni, we are challenged to set up a program through our organization to better society in one way or the other. It is my hope for us to develop an AGcelerator (a program to help students with ideas with Advice, guidance, and various forms of support eg mentor ship to further their idea and turn it into a business or social enterprise).

AGRIman PlayBook- A fun and edutaining curriculum featuring the characters of the AGRIman AGventures superhero team to teach kids between the ages of 8 to 11 to come up with solutions for food and nutrition security and enlighten them to become part of the process. Wish to support? Please let me know.