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Miranda Nyathi, South Africa

With a shortage of qualified teachers and a months-long teachers’ strike crippling government schools across South Africa, Ndzondelelo High School near Port Elizabeth was in dire straits. After the school’s fruitless search for a Mathematics substitute in the absence of the regular teacher, 16 year-old Miranda Nyathi decided to take matters into her own hands.

“I saw the need for me to start afternoon and Saturday classes, mainly focused on maths, but then I expanded the classes to science and geography,” she says. Although she sacrificed her time to help others, “I found out that I also benefit and I have gained self-confidence and respect."

Miranda speaks passionately about her love for education and her belief that it will transform her life: “It is not a want; it is a need to me.” An active participant in Ubuntu Education Fund’s community programs, she is currently founding a science club near her home in Kwa-Zakhele, where she resides with her grandmother. After attending ALA, Miranda plans to empower generations of young leaders by working to place effective teachers in schools across Africa.