The oikos Community has elected a new oikos International Board at the Legislative Meeting on Sunday 16 October!
These are the six amazing oikees who will be part of the Board for 2023:
Abdulbaki Ahmad
“I am Abdulbaki Ahmad with a B.Eng in Electrical Engineering. I am the founder of African Youth for Sustainability and Action on Climate Change (AYSACC) and also the Renewable Energy and Technical Services Officer at Center for Renewable Energy and Action Change (CREACC-NG). I was recently selected as a talent for the 2022 Hack of the UNLEASH Global Lab for the SDGs; accepted as LEAP YOUth Fellow of oikos International and published by the United Nations Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS). I was also selected as a Fellow for the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Regional Leadership Center (RLC), West Africa and as part of the Working Group for the Regional Conference of Youth (RCOY) Africa.
As a black person from the Global South, I believe my joining the board will help step up the diverse outlook of oikos International. For, it is my belief that to achieve sustainability on a global scale we need different people from different (social) backgrounds with different experiences to offer their different quotas towards the cause of sustainability. It is this unique, distinct and crucial experience that I want to bring to the board.
I feel I would be a great asset to oikos International considering my track record in sustainability and the strides I have already taken towards its realization in my immediate society—in particular—and the globe—in general—through organizations such as YOUNGO (the official youth constituency of the UNFCCC) and the United Nations Environment Program Major Group for Children and Youth (UNEP MGCY). At YOUNGO, for example, I had volunteered as part of the Partnerships and Funds Team of African Youth Mobilization for COP (AYM4COP) Campaign and as part of the Working Group of the 2022 Regional Conference of Youth (RCOY) Africa.
I believe engaging with the international board will help me forge a network with other young leaders which, by consequence, will help me learn, share and deepen my skills in leadership, communication and strategy (among others) while also getting the opportunity to learn the running of a nonprofit at a global level. I have known oikos as excellent leadership hub, and hence my believe that it would give me the perfect environment to acquire these skills. Rest assured that I would give the board my optimal best. I plan to dedicate 600+ hours within the next one year for this task.”
Lauriane Dietrichs
“My name is Lauriane Dietrichs and I am graduated with a BBA Marketing Degree and a Master of Science in Creative Business and Social Innovation at EDHEC Business school and I currently live in New York. I am currently Alternative Fundraising Manager, and I am highly motivated to intensify my involvement at oikos by being part of the board for the upcoming year.
At the international level I joined in June 2019 the re-organizing oikos working group and it made me understand the importance of oikos international network and everything that it can bring to a local level. This realization took all its meaning in October and November 2019 when I attended the FutureLab in Geneva followed by the Francophone meeting in Brussels. Meeting fellow oikees from all around the world was an amazing experience and it strengthen my bond with the community. In early 2020 I took part in the project NexGenLead in close relationship with Marcelo to develop this exciting project. We started at the brainstorming phase to find the format that will fit the need of students and teachers. I reach out to business schools in France to partner with them on this project. I later joined the communications work group and was able to give my input on the website design and the visual identity of the event. Parallelly I was a Student Voice for PRME Instagram account for 2 months at the end of 2020.
As Alternative Fundraising Manager at oikos international since 2021 I developed competences in running crowdfunding campaigns raising over $13k in the first year on Global Giving. I have handled communication and donor management around the campaigns ran with Global Giving while parallelly
developing and onboarding other platforms like TGE to expand options for our donors and diversify our sources of revenue. I worked with Salesforce and Air table to build our donor database and worked with our website designers to create the donation page on our website. I am a quick learner and adapter and I have a high interest for the subject. I am also a problem solver, a competence that I acquired by working in two start-ups, I also have a lot of experience organizing various type of events: professional, aimed for students, physical & virtual. I have a degree in digital marketing, and I believe my competences in management, communication with experience in the corporate world would bring a lot for a nonprofit like oikos. I have 4+ years’ experience working as Marketing Manager for a US firms which taught me a lot of communication and organizational skills.
I am passionate about sustainability, and therefore in 2019 I did a 6-months internship for a nonprofit
that promotes green mobility. I took care of the organization of a professional conference as well as
enrollments for the annual membership and sponsorship programs.”
Mandapati Naga Sai Asha Reddy
“I always believe in the quote by Paulo Coelho, which said “When you want something, all the Universe conspires in helping you achieve it”. The strong will to create a positive impact in the society is what I am passionate about, and I believe that oikos is such a platform for all the change agents like me to make this happen.
It has been around one and half year since I have joined SIGMA-oikos Jamshedpur. As a chapter member from the last one year, I had the opportunity to work on multiple projects like Daan Utsav-Joy of Giving week, Social Entrepreneurship Conclave, Positive Impact Rating etc., Though COVID-19 has posed many challenges but we as a team sailed through the rough phase. This year we are working on new collaborations with different stakeholders like Forest department and NGOs for cleaning drives, awareness programs for villagers, donations, live projects etc., All my experiences with these student engagement activities have taught me leadership, team building and time management skills. As a board member what I would bring to the table is the strong sense of responsibility and passion.
My active participation and interaction with many chapters across the globe in the LEAP program has led me to closely understand how the oikos works. Here, I have seen how passionate people gather, encourage, support each other and create wonders. I have got the opportunity to create changes on a small scale by participating through many other activities like House calls, Transformation Education squad etc., What I am hoping is to create and implement the changes to bring a large impact as a board member leveraging my responsibility. I hope to get elected and see myself in the position of VP – Chapter and Community development. With my experience of working in teams, human resource management etc., I would work on understanding the needs of different chapters, empowering them with resources and opportunities to grow and enhance between them.”
Manuela Montaño Ortiz
“Due to my participation in different extra curricular activities, I have developed abilities that turn me into a well-rounded, hardworking, creative and resourceful person. For instance, the volunteering activities I hav e done have not only made me a more socially responsible person, with a keen interest in helping vulnerable communities, but they also taught me how to manage complicated situations. Additionally, having done an exchange in Canada and studying in Spain, while having grown up in Colombia, has taught me to adapt to different cultures and situations, while taking into consideration the cultural differences one can find and learning from them. Furthermore, I am a very proactive and responsible person, as well as a fast learner. During my time in oikos Barcelona I have led several teams and learned to work with different types of people , managing many projects and departments, at the same time . This has allowed me to develop abilities in multitasking, without sacrificing results , and in rapidly identifying possible risks and providing solutions to them. Finally, being involved in many activities, while having a good academic performance, has taught me t o manage time efficiently and to prioritize activities, in order to deliver the best possible results.
Sustainability is a core value for me and oikos is a part of who I am. I did not know I could fall in love even more with oikos, but this summer during the oikos Camp, I did. This, combined with my all-in kind of personality, means that I will go above and beyond for the organization. This is key because I have many skills as a consequence of the different activities I have carried on throughout my life, but it is my passion and commitment to oikos that will move me to develop the skills I might be lacking, to improve the ones that need improving and to keep nurturing my strengths, in order to become a better board member every day.”
Anna Müller
“Sustainable development to me means developing the world collaboratively and deeply listen to different viewpoints provided by a diverse range of people and nationalities. I am convinced that we can learn a lot from each other and that we can only together break down outdated economic and political structures in order to create more peaceful, sustainable and responsible ones. This requires communities like oikos.
In order to be able to continue to offer the great range of projects oikos international has, I would like to become a board member. Personal development is particularly important to me, which is the basis for more peaceful communication in our networked and globalized world. Furthermore, it is important to me that employees, such as those working for the oikos international team, are informed about their legal rights and possibilities. With my background in Swiss law, I have the necessary skills and knowledge to carry out clarifications. I would be happy to support the community by answering questions in this area. In addition, I would be closer to the team to observe the existing needs, in the function of a board
member.”
Lillia Yang
“Since a couple of months I am engaging very actively with different ideas, a very concrete project oC (oikos Consulting) known as “oikos SBM” from the oikos Camp that should be embedded in oikos international and then spread out to different chapters worldwide. I already built a team of currently 6 people working closely with me and supporter around us with expertise in the field of strategy development, research, team building, entrepreneurship and more. The reason why I invested so much time and heart into it is rooted by the gratitude I am keeping inside me towards the whole oikos community and the awesome LEAP program I was lucky to be part of the last years. It not only taught me what my strengths and weaknesses were but especially also what I want to do with my life and what
my purpose is.
This clarity is reflected in the work I am currently doing as a PhD student that is connecting different universities, research center and the industry as well as students that are interested and want to be part of a transformative work environment.
I deeply believe in living the values of clarity, transparency, trust, respect, taking care of each other, active listening, love, and tolerance. Those and more values are anchored in my current project and we are building a structure that is giving space for every individual to grow, to learn, to contribute and to develop their strengths, This is something that I perceive as “the first seeds of change”. How are we treating each other? How are we living as an example and leading as a role model? Those and more questions are keeping me awake, keeping me motivated and I will dedicate my next years if not my life to further explore it.”
