1997@30: Turning an Anniversary into a Legacy

1997@30: Turning an Anniversary into a Legacy



11 September 2026

In 2027, members of the Class of 1997 will mark thirty years since completing secondary school. Thirty years is a significant milestone: a natural moment to remember, reconnect, celebrate how far we have come and reflect on the people, institutions and experiences that helped shape our journeys. But we believe it can also become something more.

What if this anniversary became an opportunity not only to look back, but also to reach back? What if, thirty years after our own secondary-school journey, members of the Class of 1997 intentionally reconnected with the schools and communities that helped form us and contributed to preparing the Class of 2027 for what comes next?

Today, 11 September 2026, WhatNext Africa formally launches the 1997@30 Global Reach-Back Legacy Initiative, a structured effort to connect the Class of 1997 with the Class of 2027, beginning with our former schools and exploring practical ways of helping today’s final-year secondary-school students prepare intentionally for the transition beyond school.

The initiative is now live at:

https://whatnext.ng/1997at30

The proposition is simple: thirty years later, we reach back.

For the Class of 2027, the months ahead will be consequential. They will register for major examinations, make decisions about tertiary education, skills development, employment, entrepreneurship and other pathways, and begin the gradual movement from the structured environment of secondary school into a much bigger and less predictable world. Reaching them early gives us an opportunity to contribute something valuable before many of those decisions become deadlines.

That contribution may take different forms in different schools, but the possibilities are broad: perspective, exposure, guidance, mentoring, encouragement, networks, information, career awareness, transition planning and practical preparation for life beyond the school gates. The objective is not to prescribe what young people must become, but to help them approach their futures more deliberately, with greater awareness of their options and stronger preparation for the choices ahead.

From Celebration to Contribution

Anniversaries naturally invite us to look backwards, but 1997@30 asks a further question: what can we do with what the intervening thirty years have given us?

Across the Class of 1997 today are professionals, entrepreneurs, public servants, academics, artisans, executives, community leaders, parents, mentors and citizens carrying three decades of accumulated experience since leaving secondary school. That experience has value. The lessons learned, mistakes made, opportunities discovered, relationships built and perspectives gained over those years can become useful capital for those now preparing to begin their own adult journeys.

The question, therefore, is not only how we celebrate where we have come from, but whether some of what we have gained can be intentionally passed forward. Can an anniversary become a bridge between generations? Can former students return to their schools not merely to remember who they were, but to strengthen those coming behind them? Can a reunion become a reach-back?

We believe it can.

Start With Your Former School

The 1997@30 Global Reach-Back Legacy Initiative begins with a deliberately practical question: what could the Class of 1997 do for the Class of 2027 in our former schools?

The answer will not necessarily look the same everywhere. Every school has its own context, every alumni community has different strengths, and every Class of 2027 cohort will have its own needs, aspirations and opportunities. For that reason, the first step is not to impose a predetermined package. It is to begin with a conversation.

We want to identify members of the Class of 1997 who are willing to help open the door to their former schools, reconnect with relevant alumni and school stakeholders, understand the needs and circumstances of the current final-year students, and explore what meaningful support could look like during the 2026/2027 academic session.

From those conversations, we hope to build practical school-level pathways for engagement and to begin as early as possible while students still have meaningful time to prepare. The aim is to move from goodwill to structured action: from alumni interest to school access, from school access to understanding, from understanding to appropriate intervention, and from intervention to measurable value for the Class of 2027.

Why Now?

Transition support is most useful before transition becomes crisis. By the final months of secondary school, many important choices may already have been made, examination pressures may have intensified, deadlines may have passed and pathways may have narrowed. The first term of the 2026/2027 academic session therefore presents a particularly important window.

This is the period in which students can still be encouraged to think ahead, ask better questions, understand their options, recognise the consequences of decisions and begin preparing intentionally for what lies beyond secondary school. The objective is not simply to help them leave school; it is to help them leave school better prepared for the next stage of life.

At WhatNext Africa, this reflects our wider commitment to raising a worthy successor generation and our conviction that major life transitions deserve deliberate preparation rather than last-minute reaction.

Beyond a Single Anniversary

The immediate focus of 1997@30 is the relationship between the Class of 1997 and the Class of 2027, but the possibility is larger. If we can demonstrate that alumni anniversaries can become structured opportunities for intergenerational support, then milestones that ordinarily look backwards can also begin to create value forward.

That would make 1997@30 more than a campaign tied to a single anniversary year. It could become a model for alumni reach-back, generational responsibility and intentional transition support: a framework through which one generation consciously helps prepare the next.

The ambition is not to build the entire system overnight. It is to begin with practical, credible action and learn from implementation. One alumnus can open one conversation. One conversation can reopen one school relationship. One school relationship can create one meaningful intervention. Several successful interventions can become a tested model. A tested model can travel.

That is how legacy becomes infrastructure rather than sentiment.

An Invitation to the Class of 1997

If you are a member of the Class of 1997, we invite you to begin with your former school.

You do not need to arrive with a finished programme, a formal alumni structure or an immediate financial commitment. The first requirement is simply a willingness to reconnect, explore what is possible and help begin the conversation around how the Class of 1997 can contribute meaningfully to the Class of 2027.

Visit the official campaign page and start with your former school:

https://whatnext.ng/1997at30

And if you know someone from the Class of 1997 who should be part of this conversation, please share this invitation — and the campaign page — with them.

Thirty years ago, we were the young people standing at the edge of secondary school, preparing to enter a much bigger world. Today, another generation stands at that threshold.

This anniversary gives us an opportunity to do more than remember our own journey. It gives us an opportunity to make someone else’s journey stronger.

1997@30 Global Reach-Back Legacy Initiative
Class of 1997 → Class of 2027
Thirty years later, we reach back.

Turning an anniversary into a legacy.

WhatNext Africa
Raising a Worthy Successor Generation

Official campaign page:
https://whatnext.ng/1997at30

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