I Can is an educational movement that seeks to provide innovative methods to impart high-school and university students with the skills and experience they require to become and remain internationally competitive in the spheres of their choosing. For the first time in recent history, an educational concept of this nature and universal applicability has been borne out of the Eastern Hemisphere and we take pride in showcasing ‘I Can’ to the world. We draw our inspiration from Model United Nations (MUN) – an educational concept in which students act as representatives of countries in a mock UN conference, much like a mock Parliament. We picked up Step 3, unshackled it from its limitations, finessed it with our own ideas and placed it in a corporate setting, thus creating what we believe to be the evolved Step 4. In this Step 4, students act as representatives of companies and political parties as opposed to those of countries. After all, a greater number of students aspire for careers in the corporate and the government sector than the UN. So, what we have finally developed is a comprehensive educational concept that aims to instill in students a whole array of life skills, soft skills, entrepreneurial and social entrepreneurial capabilities. Modelled as a two-day long corporate simulation, ‘I Can’ is a mass participation event, involving 150-300 students. The students are not required to research or read up before the event as it cannot be prepared for. It tests and hones your raw knowledge and skills. Moreover, for the first time in this part of the world, we are promoting entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship among High-School students. A carefully developed strategy is adopted that ensures that a student’s academic involvement is not jeopardised. Among other things, we fund and mentor one student entrepreneurial and one student social entrepreneurial venture out of each Conference. We also offer mentorship all year round to any aspiring student entrepreneur or social entrepreneur. We aim to build a national, and ultimately international, network of the crème de la crème High Schools and bring to them networking opportunities as well as unique educational concepts like the ‘I Can Conference’ in our attempt to catalyse the holistic development of the student.
