A Message from our New CEO
Today has that “first day of school” feeling. Excited, a little bit nervous, a combination of the familiar and the unknown. Wondering what the year ahead will hold, but ready to learn and confident that with a wide network of support, it just might be one of our best years yet.
Today, I am honoured and humbled to step into the role of CEO. And I’m enjoying that “first day of school" feeling. It reminds me of Rising’s first day of school in April 2015. As Paul and I drove up to Rising Regent, we passed one of our first students walking up the hill in his purple uniform. The moment hit home - we were now responsible for this child’s learning.
Every September, I think of that first student. I think of the responsibility we hold and the unbelievable potential we have to make a difference in every student’s life. Not only their learning, but their safety, their values and their hopes for their future. Now as a network of over 250,000 students, that responsibility is much much bigger. It is a responsibility that is both incredibly motivating and deeply humbling.
It’s been over 10 years since we started this journey. But as we start the 2024-25 school year and I step into my new role, I want to take a moment to share a bit more about myself, our priorities and what we’re looking forward to this year.
Who am I?
I grew up in Calgary, Canada, and have two older brothers, one of whom helped start up Rising. Growing up, our family valued education and my parents set high standards. It was expected that we would work hard and always try our best. My family was, and still is, my supportive foundation.
I enjoy being active and I try to exercise most days, as much for my mental wellbeing as my physical health. I like to spend time getting to know people, and although I enjoy being social, I need quiet time to recharge.
I appreciate small joys and laughter. Although our mission carries a lot of responsibility, I think we all do our best when we experience moments of shared joy in our everyday work.
Why am I here?
I am here because I care deeply about Rising’s mission and believe we still have so much to achieve together. At Rising, we have an unparalleled opportunity to create change that will have a lasting impact on students’ lives. I have yet to come across a more inspiring purpose or one with such vast potential. And I have yet to meet a more brilliant, passionate and resilient team with the courage and integrity to deliver on that potential than the team we have at Rising.
What are my big priorities?
My overarching priority is to continue to build from our position of strength. Rising is well-poised for an amazing few years ahead. My goal is to support our brilliant team, continue to strengthen our culture and ways of working together, and hold ourselves accountable to delivering on our strategy for growth and impact.
As I step into my new role, one of my personal priorities is to listen and learn. I’m looking forward to hearing from our team, our partners and our stakeholders about what we’re doing well and what we need to improve.
What are our big priorities?
Across Rising, I’m hearing a common theme - “this will be our best year yet”. And I love it. To make it a reality, we know we have some big objectives to achieve.
Rising private schools are the aspirational school of choice for students and parents. This means continuing to deliver our promise to create schools that open doors and change lives, with high quality teaching and learning in every classroom, every day. It means ensuring every one of our schools promotes a safe and supportive learning environment. And it means that every school is continually improving and setting new standards of excellence: “however well we do, we always strive to do better”.
Rising partnership schools achieve excellent results and our government partners love working with us. This year we aim to deliver our best learning results to date and showcase strong implementation across all of our government partnerships. At the same time, this is also the year when we want to demonstrate our readiness for scale. Whether it is national or local governments, funders, other education providers or the schools themselves - Rising aspires to be an organisation who listens and supports partners to reach their goals for the future.
Rising continues to develop industry-leading tools and content that can power other schools across Africa. Rising products have a reputation for quality. We design and develop solutions that genuinely meet the needs of schools and thoughtfully leverage the best of the latest technologies. Our goal is to continue to make smart investments in our R&D and ensure our products are best-in-class, and then open these up for other schools and organisations to use.
What am I most excited about?
As the new school year gets under way, I’m excited to spend more time across the organisation, with our team and in our schools. I’m also very excited about all of the amazing work kicking off! The launch of our revamped primary curriculum, bringing Rori, our AI-powered virtual math tutor, into government schools in Rwanda and Sierra Leone for the first time, and leveraging the learnings from a new research partnership on teachers’ lesson preparation - to name just a few.
Here’s to our best year yet. Let’s keep Rising.
Steph
