'You have the responsibility to make your life what you want it to be'
ALA student Paul Ntege scored top regional marks in Uganda, despite his three-days-a-week job at a rock quarry. Photo by Hannalie Coetze for Stanford Magazine.
My story on the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa is out today in Stanford Magazine!
The African Leadership Academy is an intensive two-year boarding school whose students are hand-picked from among the most promising teenagers on the African continent. (Perhaps you saw one of their enterprising students on The Daily Show last month.) The goal is to educate a new generation of African leaders who will make their careers on the continent and put their talents and education to use where it is most needed.
In addition to academic achievement, admissions officers look for a natural spirit of entrepreneurship. They want the kind of person who sees a problem and immediately looks for a solution, who looks at the kinds of challenges facing Africa and sees an opportunity. I spoke with a young man from Zimbabwe who built a classroom full of computers from spare parts when he realized his high school had no hardware. Think about that the next time you bitch that your WiFi connection is too slow.
The group of students that joined me for lunch included an aspiring doctor from the Congo who wishes to focus on the medical aspect of human rights, a techie from Burundi and an emerging entrepreneur from Kenya. I ended our conversation reluctantly, only when I realized that their polite yet worried expressions meant, "Please, lady, stop asking questions and let us go to class." ALA is a fascinating place, and I'll be watching eagerly to see the impact its alumni have on Africa's future.
