CONTINUING THE JOURNEY
By Evan Cauble-Johnson, CEO, Street Business School
As we begin a new fiscal year at Street Business School, we are also marking a meaningful transition in the life of our organization.
On June 30, Torkin Wakefield and Joachim Ewechu, two founding members of the Street Business School Board of Directors, completed their board terms. Their departure from the board is a transitional moment for SBS.
Torkin and Joachim helped guide SBS from its earliest days as an independent organization. They were there when SBS launched in 2018, and they have helped steward us through years of growth, change, learning, and impact. They brought wisdom, steadiness, and deep belief in the power of this work. Their leadership helped shape the organization SBS has become.
Their transition also marks an important milestone: for the first time, the SBS Board of Directors (and the CEO role) are fully comprised of individuals who were not part of Street Business School when it launched in 2018.
There is something both humbling and hopeful about that.
It is humbling because it reminds us that organizations are built through the commitment of many people over time. None of us carries this work alone. Each person who has served SBS has contributed something essential to the journey. Founders, board members, staff, coaches, partners, donors, and graduates have all helped move this mission forward.
And it is hopeful because it shows that Street Business School is doing what strong organizations must do: continue beyond any one person, any one board, or any one season of leadership.
At SBS, we often come back to a metaphor that has helped us understand our work: Street Business School is a boat journeying down a river.
Sometimes people get off the boat. Torkin and Joachim are doing that now in their formal roles as board members. Sometimes people get on the boat. I did that when I joined SBS, as have many of our current board members, staff, partners, and supporters.
But no matter who is on the boat at any given moment, the journey continues.
We are still moving down the river in pursuit of the same mission: to provide women living in extreme poverty with the tools to change their own lives through entrepreneurship.
That mission is bigger than any one of us. It is what has carried SBS from the beginning, and it is what will carry us into the future.
As I reflect on this transition, I feel deep gratitude for the leaders who helped bring SBS to this point. Torkin and Joachim gave their time, expertise, and care to help build something that is now reaching women across Uganda, Africa, and the world. Their fingerprints are on this organization in ways that will continue to matter for years to come.
And, importantly, their connection to SBS is not ending!
Torkin will continue to serve as a Board Member Emeritus, alongside founding CEO Devin Hibbard and co-founder Ginny Jordan. We are grateful that SBS will continue to benefit from their wisdom, history, and perspective.
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