This year’s Global Scholars Program was held at the African Leadership Academy’s campus from 15 July through August 4. The purpose of GSP is to introduce the participants to the core Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and African Studies (LEA) lessons as well as the Academy’s values and approach to creating global change.
This three-week summer program was started for the first time last year with 16 participants and has grown into a much larger and more extensive program. GSP 2012 hosted 55 secondary school participants from 17 different countries.
The three weeks were packed with activities that included lessons on entrepreneurial leadership concepts, seminal readings based on the theme of Ideas and Images of Africa, a speaker series, community service, travel, and a range of social activities.
GSP 2012 invited a range of diverse leaders and entrepreneurs for the speaker series. Students heard speeches from King Molotlegi, the King of the Royal Bafokeng Nation; Alan Knott-Craig Jr, owner of Mxit & World of Avatar; Jassandra Nyker, Senior Vice President of PCG Asset Management; and more.
GSP 2012 partnered with 6 daycares, or crèches, in the Zandspruit communities in the Johannesburg area. GSP students performed community service twice a week, identified the needs in these crèches, and tried to come up with solutions they could implement.
Some of the travel during GSP included sites such as the Rosebank craft market, Pilanesberg National Park Game Reserve, Sterkfontein caves, and the Maropeng museum.
The students got to watch a play about the Xenophobic attacks in South African townships in 2008 called “The Line.” They also took a trip to the historical Soweto, which included a tour of the Hector Pieterson Museum, the Nelson Mandela House, and Kliptown Youth Program.
A requirement of the program was that the GSP participants incorporate the entrepreneurial concepts they learned throughout the program to design their own projects. The participants presented these projects at the GSP Ideas Festival towards the end of the program.
For more information, check out the pictures on Facebook, Follow GSP 2012 on Twitter, and read about the participant’s experiences in the “GSP in the Eyes of” series on the GSP 2012 blog.
