We are grateful for the College Board’s decision to co-invest with African Leadership Academy (ALA) in the potential, promise and impact of young people. Their generous contribution of $100,000 will go towards our University Guidance program, supporting students to identify outstanding universities across the globe. We stand together with all those who believe access to opportunity is critical to positive change. Each day, young people in Africa, Latin America, and Haiti are demonstrating how they will leverage these opportunities to transform the world.
Universities in the United States are accelerating the trajectory of our graduates, who are in turn making invaluable contributions on their campuses. Universities recruit these young leaders because they believe in the potential of young Africans to solve important problems. Each year, our graduates validate this belief. They proceed to and through the world’s most selective tertiary institutions at rates that best any comparable population. They are not takers, but makers. Each year, graduates like Julia innovate radical health solutions, graduates like Bradley lead campus campaigns and graduates like Ellen leverage their opportunities to uplift others.
In our first 10 years, 640 young African leaders have proceeded from ALA to more than 140 of the world’s leading tertiary institutions. They have been enabled by over $100,000,000 USD in scholarship money from these great universities, their supporters, and their governments. 95% have completed university bachelors degrees on time, ahead of US national averages for highly selective universities. These young leaders have returned to lead change in Africa after graduating, and they are continuing on trajectories of impact: graduates like Eddie are organizing for universal justice; graduates like Antony, Jason and Gabriel are building technological solutions; and graduates like Joseph and Majak are enabling the learning and growth of thousands of other young people.
These are young leaders who represent the widest spectrum of socio-economic privilege. Many, by dint of global inequality, would have been locked out of discovering and sharingtheir potential with the rest of the world. They represent the promise of Africa and the promise of youth everywhere.
As a learning community, we seek to always adopt a growth mindset. We believe that what is broken today can be fixed tomorrow. We believe that through hard, persistent, collaborative work, we can achieve a universal mission of shared peace and prosperity. We believe that this requires the collaboration of youth across the world. We believe, most importantly, that with the right coaching, practice and opportunities, leaders can learn to be better, to do better, to lead better.
We encourage others to keep the pipeline of educational opportunity open for young people across the globe by supporting local educational institutions, colleges and universities that make access a priority. Your support makes a difference in addressing our shared global challenges.
