Recently, Nova University students from Lisbon paid a special visit to the Ace Africa team in London. This was part of a weeklong trip to the UK where they also visited Ernst & Young, Google and Bloomberg to learn about various sectors.

The Master students, who were all pursuing degrees in management, had the opportunity to hear from one of their very own alumni and Ace Africa’s UK country director, Margarida Villas-Boas. Having started off her career in a multinational environment, Margarida gave a presentation on her experiences and how she made her career change into the charitable sector.

Margarida Villas-Boas presents to Nova students

Lizzy Epsley then presented on Ace Africa’s programmes and initiatives in Tanzania and Kenya. As none of the students had visited either country, the insight into positive and sustainable community work was of great interest to them. Our Chairman John Collenette then spoke about his career in finance and noted that working with Ace Africa since retiring, was something he enjoyed tremendously. He added that unlike the finance sector, money was not the main goal and that seeing progress on the ground was the real reward.

Chairman John Collenette talks to the students

After these interesting presentations, we had an extremely lively Q&A session with the students with some inspired to go into the not for profit sector. Questions included how Ace Africa projects were started, how the communities work with Ace Africa teams and whether the team thought the projects would be sustainable in the long term.

Professor Rita Campos e Cunha from Nova added that, in recent years, she had noticed more and more students seeking out volunteering experiences whether they are abroad or at home. In a recent article by The Guardian, volunteering abroad is seen as part of a ‘growing trend’ as young people seek to combine their travels with something more worthwhile.

Overall we hope the students enjoyed their visit and wish them all the best in their future careers.