Every education reform conversation eventually arrives at the same question: what actually gives a child the best chance at a strong future? In Rwanda, a leading institution has been looking at that question with seriousness. Well before the first Fun Learning Conference took place, the Rwanda Basic Education Board convened a VIP Roundtable that shaped the direction of the work from its earliest planning conversations, and went on to co-host the conference itself, and to initiate and organise the involvement of Teacher Training College students as active participants, not observers. What follows is, in large part, the answer that partnership has been building toward.