Upgrading the Scientific Capacity of Uganda
MEETING FOR THE WEEK OF Dec. 29, 2025
This Meeting at a Glance:
Program: Upgrading the Scientific Capacity of Uganda
Speaker: Robert Freeman
Is this your first time visiting us? If so, welcome to our weekly online meeting! To complete our meeting, please continue reading from here to the bottom of this page. Each Monday, our week’s meeting is posted early in the morning, U.S. Pacific Time. These meetings are designed so that you can read and watch what we post anytime during the week. The entire meeting takes about 60 minutes to complete, with the video conference recording of the program being the bulk of the time. Note that you can easily read this meeting with your favorite device, so feel free to take our meeting on the go with you. Please also complete the attendance form at the bottom and leave a comment. Enjoy!
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Read and watch the content below in its entirety.
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Greetings Members, Rotarians, Friends and Guests:
Want to Learn More About Us? - Who We Are, What We Do, Why We Do It
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Thanks for joining our weekly meeting!
Happy New Year to all! From the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley. Wishing everyone peace, kindness, good health and a vigorous Service Above Self energy.
Tzviatko Chiderov - Club Member
WEEKLY FUNNY WITH SHAGS
We believe laughter is an important part of life, and we should all make time to laugh a little. This segment of our meeting is meant to tickle you just enough. These funnies are curated by member Steven "Shags" Shagrin!
I've Never Seen One, Either
Fred: "Why do elephants wear red nail polish?"
Bob: "I don't know, why?"
Fred: "To hide in cherry trees."
Bob: "But I've never seen an elephant in a cherry tree."
Fred: "See, it works."
Inspiration
This video is called "The 2% way: Myron Rolle's tips for success," and it's the story of a pro athlete who gave it up to become a surgeon. He has a pretty amazing outlook on how people can improve themselves, and I hope you enjoy his message in this news segment.
LEARN SOMETHING NEW
Food Dating
Food expiration dates don’t mean what you think - Carolyn Beans
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PROGRAM: Upgrading the Scientific Capacity of Uganda
SPEAKER: Robert Freeman
We bring you a new program every week on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education and how they contribute to service to others.
Our speaker, Robert Freeman, spent nineteen years in the computer industry, rising to Vice President at the seventh largest software company in the world. After that, he taught at Los Altos High School for 16 years. In 2011, he was named "Bay Area Teacher of the Year" by the San Francisco 49ers Organization.
In 2007, Freeman founded The Global Uplift Project. TGUP offered high school students the chance to build classrooms in developing-world countries from donations of one dollar. In 2020, when COVID closed all the schools, TGUP opened to adults. The ethic remains the same: small donations, aggregated, to build educational projects in the poorest countries in the world. TGUP has completed 592 such projects in 26 countries.
In 2022, he presented to our Rotary club about TGUP, and this week, he shares a bold initiative that his organization has launched.
The project is to upgrade the scientific capacity of the entire nation of Uganda. Already underway, TGUP is doing this by installing TGUP's Science Lab in a Box™ (SLaB) at 50 of the top high schools in the country. Early results show 80+% improvement in nationally normed test scores within the first year of installation of SLaB.
If this project improves Ugandan GDP by only 1/1000th of 1% in 10 years, it pays for itself 200 times over. TGUP has the support of the Rotary International infrastructure at the highest level of the country. The Ugandan District Governor, Christine Kawooya, has submitted a letter of support stating, "Please know that our entire Rotary team is fully committed to the success of this groundbreaking program."
Members and guests, please welcome back Robert Freeman!
To learn more, go to:
The Global Uplift Project: https://tgup.org/
TGUP's Science Lab in a Box™: https://tgup.org/slab
Website for this project: https://tgup.org/SEUU
The 573 projects TGUP has already completed: https://tgup.org/Project-Thumbnails
To learn more about the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley, go to:
http://rotary.cool
Our Three Podcast Series
Our main program speakers are available as podcasts in addition to YouTube videos! Each week, they are available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, as well as many other platforms.
Our weekly podcast is now called:
Inspiring People - Stories of Innovation and Service
Inspiring Solutions for a Better World
Our original podcast, featuring some of the best of our previous speakers, is still available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and many other platforms.
Inspiring Women: Celebrating Trailblazers
Our newest podcast celebrates trailblazing women. It is available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and many other platforms.
UPCOMING PROGRAM RECORDING SCHEDULE
All of our guest speakers and programs are recorded live online over Zoom video conference. We welcome members and guests to join us in one of these upcoming recordings. Recordings are approximately 30 minutes long and are subject to change without notice.
Our online video conference room link for these recordings is always http://zoom.siliconvalleyrotary.com/. You are welcome to join us! Please note the timezone listed for all recordings is US Pacific Time (San Francisco, California, USA).
If you can’t join the live recording, please send your questions for an upcoming speaker to programs@siliconvalleyrotary.com.
THE ATTENDANCE SURVEY
Thanks for reading and watching this week’s meeting. You have two last things to do before you’re done.
We have a very short attendance survey below for you to fill out to record your attendance.
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