Volunteer Spotlight: Kristian Jakobsson
By Ambitious.Africa
I first embarked on my journey with Ambitious Africa (A.A) in the summer of 2021. The semester had just ended and I came across a social media post on LinkedIn by A.A. I remember Peter Vesterbacka mentioned it in a seminar the previous year and also a quick presentation by a few Hanken students about startup incubators launched in Rwanda. Rather soon I was intrigued by the organization and decided to have a look to see what the fuss was about. I looked at the vacancies and, soon enough, was a member of the finance team. It took a while to get the hang of the operations, but soon I realized the work Ambitious Africa does is important and interesting, although these realms were completely unfamiliar to me before.
As a young person from the Nordics, Ambitious Africa has been a great platform for meeting new awesome people all over the world. It’s been an honor working together with talented people from every corner of the planet and furthering great projects.
Kristian with Katarina Barley, a Vice President at the European Parliament
After a few months in the finance doing miscellaneous tasks in the finance team a new opportunity opened up: the Head of Grants. This was a monumental opportunity, as I had never led a team before.
This task was rather different than I expected. There’s a lot more work going into grant writing than I first though. The biggest challenges are being patient and, figuratively, getting smacked in the face after a grant application was rejected that initially seemed impeccable. However, the upsides heavily outweigh the downsides, getting approval for a grant is a great feeling.
My most memorable feeling as the Head of Grants is my first time interviewing someone for the team (for the people who haven’t interviewed someone for a position, it’s a lot more difficult than you think). Another memorable experience was getting the first approval, this was the European Charlemagne Youth Prize.
All in all, the most important thing is to not be afraid to make mistakes and taking on new challenges. Initially, the more mistakes you make the more you will learn. Additionally, don’t be afraid of taking on new challenges, whether that is in Ambitious Africa or not. You are capable of a lot more than you think!
Feel free to reach out to me at kristian@ambitiousafrica.org if you have any questions.
Have a nice summer!
Kristian representing Ambitious.Africa at a prize competition in Germany
Kristian Jakobsson is the current Grants Manager at Ambitious.Africa
