Please describe your proposed solution.
The importance of student clubs in developing highly knowledgeable individuals and nurturing leadership skills has been well-documented. A case study conducted in 2019 by the ACUI at a university in western New York revealed that student clubs played a pivotal role in raising 70% of students who demonstrated exceptional knowledge in their respective fields and developed relevant leadership skills beneficial to their society.
Recognizing the significance of student clubs in fostering personal and professional growth, numerous legacy and principle-based organizations such as Rotary Clubs, Red Cross, IEEE, and Enactus, have prioritized the establishment of clubs at high school and undergraduate levels. These organizations share a common objective: to cultivate the next generation of highly skilled individuals who graduate with a strong sense of shared values and ethics, and who are committed to passing the baton to future generations.
It is evident that building student clubs is crucial for organizations aspiring to build a lasting legacy that spans generations. However, the global landscape currently lacks a substantial presence of Cardano student clubs, they are less than 5 globally from our research so far, and specifically, there is no existing student club in Nigeria(Which is Africa's most populous country). This proposal aims to address this gap by establishing active student clubs in universities and colleges throughout Nigeria.
Nigeria has 6 geo-political zones, to increase inclusion and to cover the broad spectrum of Nigeria- Africa's most populous country we will be establishing student clubs, one at each geo-political zones. However, unlike most student clubs that run independently, the Cardano student club Nigeria will run under a unified body, this body will consist of representatives from other institutions who will form a Cardano Student National Council. The goal of the council will be to
(I) Create awareness of Cardano among students
(ii) Inaugurate new chapters, expand and onboard other colleges and universities in Nigeria to the Student club
(iii) Work on collaborative projects
(iv) Organize national seminars, symposiums, and events
(v) Develop relatable contents to educate and train other students on Cardano, Plutus, Catalyst, DAOs and any other related topics
Under this unified body not only will we ensure the launching of the clubs but we are putting in structures to ensure the long-term sustainability of these clubs, this is one missing piece that we are introducing to ensure that we are not just launching a student club, but building a legacy that will pass the baton of Cardano from one generation to another.
STRUCTURE: The structure of the student club will be as follows:
(I) Chapter Level coordinators: These are coordinators at the different campuses, they are saddled with the responsibility of expanding and enabling Cardano student activities on their campuses.
(ii) National Student Council: They are elected members from the various student clubs who are committed to the national responsibility of overseeing all the individual activities by other campuses, they set the direction of projects and focus that the chapter coordinators will follow.
(iii) Mentors: These are members of the Cardano ecosystem who commit to helping and teaching the students on topics ranging from Plutus to Catalyst to innovations etc, this is both a paid and volunteering position.
(iv) Supervisory Council: They oversee the National Council and are not necessarily students but members of the Cardano ecosystem in Nigeria and with whom the student council can go when and where needed. They will consist of Faculties from the colleges and members of the Cardano community in both Nigeria and outside who are interested in the project. This is both a paid and volunteer position.
FEES and Dues: Every club has a fee or dues that is being paid to join on most campuses, in this project, students will pay 10 ADA to the student club wallet and commit to holding at least 10 ADA to join the student clubs and pay 10 ADA annually to the student club to renew their membership. This fee approach helps us to be able to onboard students who are active holders of the ADA and actively participating in the future of the Cardano blockchain. Assuming each club has 20 members(which is just a conservative estimate) and we are starting with 6 campuses, that means in 6 months they will be about 120 students joining the ecosystem with active wallets as well. Considering that the number of clubs and campuses will be expanding due to the efforts of the National Student Council and new members join the club yearly this project will onboard at least 10,000 students with active wallets within the first 5 years of the project.
FUTURE SCOPE: The success of this model and approach will imply that we can propose partnering with other global student clubs like the student clubs in Ethiopia, the Cardano student club at Queens University, and every other subsequent club which will be established in the future. We can all come together to create a unified framework that the students will use and also create cross-cultural and cross-regional interaction between the students in these different global clubs.
How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?
The goal of this challenge is to increase the number of students and student developers onboarded into the Cardano ecosystem. This is directly related to the goal of our project of onboarding at least 100 students as Cardano student club members in the next 6 months and over 10,000 students in the next 5 years. These students will eventually become Cardano developers and/or active members of the Cardano community. Also, our proposal has a scheme that enables every onboarded member to become an active ADA holder, implying that our project will help onboard more than 100 students with 100 Cardano wallets in 5 months and more than 10,000 students with Cardano wallets in the next 5 years.
How do you intend to measure the success of your project?
- The number of clubs established within the first 6 months of the project
- The establishment and functioning of a National student council
- The amount of wallets/ADA opened in each campus as students join the club
- The formation of a supervisory council for the National student clubs.
Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?
For this project, we will follow the following plan
(I) First Month: We will be traveling, researching, and lobbying for the best campuses to set this up in different geo-political zones in Nigeria
(ii) 2nd-3rd Month: Inauguration Events in 6 campuses in Nigeria
(iii) 4th Month: Formation of the National Supervisory Council
(iv) 5th Month: Formation of Mentors
(iv) 5th- 6th Month: Election for the first Student supervisory council.
We will be sharing the project report, images, and videos with the community, especially as monthly reports when funded. The report will be public and available to all, and the videos will be shared on youtube and the links publicly shared with the community.
Depending on the success of this project, this can be used as a template and framework for establishing other student clubs in other countries, also this proposal will help in the future when, if, and where there are a lot of student clubs in the ecosystem globally and there is a need to unify all efforts, then this framework from our approach will be quite helpful.