Who We Are - empowermefirst.college

empowermefirst.college - who we are

We make higher education accessible - against all odds!

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Nelson Mandela

We are passionate about people, that’s why we’re passionate about education.

We educate to understand, we educate to innovate, we educate to improve society, to fight climate change, conflict, corruption and inequality, we educate because we’re passionate about people.

Our college is a charity based in Switzerland.
We work with authors and tutors in all countries to ensure we follow the local syllabus for best university entry level results.

Meet the Leadership

We bring education to the most vulnerable

Dr Anthony Powell

Founder Dr Anthony Powell uses his experience as lecturer, founder and dean of a college and his global network to communicate with schools, universities, to lead the staff, student body and administration.

Education: Phd in ministry, theology, diplomas: TEFL teacher, leadership
Experience: lecturer, lived in different countries (such as Antigua, Trinidad, USA, UK, Switzerland) and knowledge of the education system in those countries
position: founder, director
responsible for
- partnerships with investors, sponsors, universities, schools and countries
- acquisition of students, schools
- HR
- Content: leadership, pastoral care

Brigit Koch

Founder Brigit Koch uses her experience in communications, journalism, teaching and as author of online teaching materials to be the strategic head of communications and content.

Education: MAs: German and English literature and language, further and higher education, new media art and design
Experience: Journalism, corporate communications, upper secondary school teacher, lecturer at a teacher’s university, author for online teaching material. Lived in Switzerland, USA, Northern Ireland, China, knowledge of the different education systems well.
Position: Co-founder, head of communications and content
Responsible for
- Communications and marketing
- Educational strategy, methodology, content

Conium Nyathi

Conium Nyathi is team leader of countries and country coordinator of Zimbabwe.
He’s also the founder of achievers academy, a school in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe that gives school dropouts a second chance.

Experience: Teacher, national youth pastor
position: Team leader of countries, country coordinator for Zimbabwe
Responsible for
- Smooth running of all centers in Zimbabwe: Overseeing student / staff onboarding / retention, HR, effective use of centers, fundraising, budget, accounting / controlling, partnerships
- Collaboration, communication and smooth running in all countries, preventing duplication
- Evaluating and sharing of best practices
- Communications, fundraising and events.

Symphonie Razafindrabe

Symphonie Razafindrabe is co-leader of ICT syllabus and content creation, communications and project coordinator.

Education: MSc in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Georgia Tech (US) and MSc in Control Engineering from IMT Atlantique (France)
Experience: Current software engineer at Snapchat in Augmented Reality. Previously a software engineer at Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Cloud computing. Worked in France, Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland.
position: Project coordinator and co-leader of ICT syllabus and content creation
Responsible for
- Planning and overseeing projects in ICT, fundraising and partnerships.
- ICT curriculum, syllabus
- Overseeing ICT content creation
- Overseeing student progress and questions by students to improve ICT course