25 high-potential young men from across the United States spent two weeks on ALA’s campus this July for a two week Entrepreneurial Leadership program as part of JP Morgan’s Fellowship Initiative (TFI). The program brought together the young men to expose them to Leadership and Entrepreneurship concepts taught at ALA.
The two-week leadership program was jam-packed as ALA covered all the essential elements of the Academy’s Entrepreneurial Leadership curriculum and also equipped the participants with the requisite skills and knowledge to develop and pitch a socially geared idea. Part of the JPMC summer program included Seminal Readings, an ALA Social Entrepreneur Case Study, an Ideas Festival, and more. Fellows also heard from several guest speakers who addressed topics such as: Life During Apartheid, Entrepreneurship, Social Change, and Leadership. Fred Swaniker, the founder and CEO of the Academy, was one of the speakers who addressed the fellows.
In order to allow the TFI Fellows the opportunity to engage with ALA students, five ALA first years were invited to participate in the JPMC summer program and an additional five students who are ALA alumni served as counselors for the program.
TFI fellows took several off campus trips during the two-week program. These included the Pilanesburg National Game Park, Craft markets in Magliesburg, Clearwater Mall, Circle Capital, and the South African headquarters of JP Morgan Chase. They also took a tour of the historic Soweto where they visited the Apartheid Museum and the Kliptown Youth Project. A highlight of the program for many was the volunteering sessions at the Emthonjeni Community Center in the neighboring community of Zandspruit.
The success of the JP Morgan Chase TFI summer program at ALA is a testament to the broad-scale applicability of the Academy’s Leadership and Entrepreneurship curriculum beyond the confines of ALA’s two-year academic program. ALA’s flagship curriculum can be customized into a tailored leadership program that teaches the Academy’s values and approach to a widespread audience