Tag Archive for: education

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Changemakers in the making – Imagine Scholar

“Imagine Scholar is a place where I become who I want to be, where I don’t have to pretend to fit in. Spending a day at Imagine Scholar means I get to explore my deep interests, which grow and enrich my life with authentic happiness.” Given Sandamela, Grade 10

Founded in 2009 and set in the rural Nkomazi region of South Africa, Imagine Scholar is an after-school mentorship program that exists to catalyse young leaders’ potential. With the belief that a student’s ability to succeed should not be determined by the situation they were born in to, Grade 9-12 Scholars sit in the driver’s seat of their own development, taking the reins for their own personal, professional, and academic achievement – all with a sense of humour.

Pioneering 21st century education

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive”. This quote from Howard Thurman encapsulates Imagine Scholar’s ethos.

Academic standards and averages are not enough to cultivate the robust and empathetic leaders we need to solve 21st Century challenges. Instead of celebrating conformity, we instigate quirkiness and individuality.

Instead of prescribing information for Scholars to memorise and regurgitate, we give students a toolkit to understand the reaches of their cognitive ability and let them explore. The result? Scholars evolve to be critical and tactile – taking note of issues they see in the world and designing solutions. Instead of reading a book about organic farming, a Scholar will build a farm. Instead of dreaming about a future career in tech, a Scholar will code an app that is useful to his or her peers. Scholars tinker, test, and model their way to understanding their world.

Our program challenges students to go beyond theorising and to become ripple-makers. We facilitate instead of tell, guide instead of force, and see ourselves as the scaffolding for a students’ progression. Imagine Scholar is a 21st Century tool kit to the curious learner.

Innovative Curriculum 

Being a Scholar is no easy task. Students attend Imagine Scholar for approximately 25 hours per week, on top of traditional school. Our curriculum is divided into multiple segments, each positioned to equip students with a diverse set of skills to tackle real-world problems:

  • Think Tank is a three-year journey into cognitive self-awareness. Students explore with creativity, abstraction, bias, and behaviour, examining topics like psychology, cognitive science, heuristics, and even behavioural economics.
  • Ommm (Open Minded Meaning Makers) Lab is grounded in storytelling and imbuing Scholars with confidence to create meaning. Oracy, linguistics, discourse, and communication styles provide fodder for learning in this class.
  • Learning Zone is a meta-learning workspace that allows young leaders to sharpen their academic and scientific learning skills. Learning Zone encourages Scholars to design, test, analyse, and re-create.

Imagine Scholar’s innovative curriculum pushes the boundaries of education in our community and has yielded incredible results from numerous groundbreaking acceptances to international universities, to students building award-winning electric vehicles, launching chess tournaments, and improving literacy in our community.

Inclusive Culture

Our distinctive organisational culture is the glue that holds our program together, and the secret sauce for our success. At Imagine Scholar, a sense of openness to emotional and intellectual vulnerability is the norm; our culture allows students to have a safe space to blue-sky think, try, and fail without fear of ridicule.

Our culture begins with our rigorous application process. The sheer rigor of the process means that hundreds of students wane, leaving only those who truly want to be here. From there, our mature students take the reins, choosing our final cohort of 10 based on character interviews. This not only to allow our students, who have worked hard to create a culture they love ensure its longevity, but also to give new Grade 9s an immediate sense of inclusion.

Inclusive culture, innovative curriculum, and a dedication to pioneering a new style of education are the ingredients that make up Imagine Scholar. We are constantly learning, growing, and evolving, always looking for the next best way to inspire and empower the young leaders of tomorrow.

Find out more about Imagine Scholar and connect with them via their Eco Atlas page.

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If I were president for a day | Buyekezwa Ndlumbini

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I met Buyi at Dwesa Nature Reserve in the Eastern Cape where she was working as an intern for her nature conservation studies and receiving a basic stipend for her time. It was a short contract though and she had no further prospects for permanent, gainful employment when it finished and this was the biggest milestone that hung round her neck as a single mother, her greatest goal being an excellent education for her daughter. We chatted about her challenges and joys, her greatest wishes and what changes she as a young woman living in rural South Africa would bring about if she were president of the country. What changes would you bring about if you were president for a day?

What are your greatest challenges? 

My greatest challenge is that I am unemployed because I’m a single parent. There is an overpopulation of the unemployed youth and yet everyone should have the chance to get a job. With no jobs for the youth they are depending on their parents to survive.

Living in a rural area there is no access to newspapers and the internet. Basic service delivery is not happening, they are taking too long to tar the road to our village even though they approved it 3 years ago. We pay the price, the bakkies in our area are badly damaged by the state of the road. The education in our area is also very poor, teachers don’t send their own children to the schools they teach at. They don’t identify the children with special needs that need to go to a special school. The clinic in our area is only open during the week, if there is an emergency on the weekend we have to hire a bake for R1 000 to get the person to hospital.

What are your greatest joys?

To be with my family. To have a chance to work and give my daughter better opportunities. Nature conservation gives me joy because I really care.

 

If you were president what would you make happen?

I would make sure that every child is well educated. I would create more jobs for youth who are unemployed and that will decrease the crime. I would make sure the rural areas have the same services as the urban areas – libraries, soccer fields, internet cafes. I would encourage South Africans to farm on a small scale, if you are farming you will not be suffering. I would educate people about alien invasive plants and their problems and about the importance of saving water.

What is your greatest wish?

My greatest wish is to get a permanent job.

What is stopping you from achieving your wish?

People give jobs to their family members, there is so much nepotism. it is very difficult to get a job, even if you are qualified. and then you find the person who got the job is not qualified at all.

 

Thank to all the places on Eco Atlas that give gainful, fair and socially just employment with upskilling, training and empowerment as part of their employment mandate. www.ecoatlas.co.za 

Ikamva Youth | Education for kids by kids |Change Makers

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The idea for iKamvaYouth was born in 2003 by Makhosi Gogwana and Joy Olivier, back then two young researchers, who collectively noticed the massive problems facing matriculants in disadvantaged areas, particularly in the subjects of Mathematics and Science. Makhosi and Joy noticed how students, with the help of tutors, are able to gain an upper hand, by opening new doors allowing more opportunities to further their studies after they have matriculated.

 

As reported on the IkamvaYouth website, 1.3 million learners start school every year in South Africa, but less than half will ever matriculate. The difficult socio-economic inequalities reflect on a dark trend, with black learners continuously underperforming, particularly in the subjects of Maths and Sciences. This backdrop puts them at much greater risk of enlarging an already concerning unemployment rate. Access to South Africa’s universities is limited to less than 10% of youth, and very few of those come from township schools.

 

IkamvaYouth is addressing this legacy of inequality by enabling township youth to improve their academic performance and access post-school opportunities that set them on the path to earning a dignified living.

 

On a chilly morning Clotilde and I met with three of IkamvaYouth’s tutors, (iKamvanites as they are referred to) during a break form the winter school program that IkamvaYouth was hosting at the University of the Western Cape in Belville. Being on a complete volunteer basis, we were interested to find out the tutors perspective of the programme.

 

IkamvaYouth is primarily a tutoring organisation, where tutors volunteer their time and knowledge. Learners are taught to think for themselves, and practice reading, understanding, writing/calculating, and speaking. The model is based on learners taking responsibility for their own studies, identifying the aspects of their work with which they need help, and ensuring that they seek support to fill in the self identified gaps in their knowledge/understanding.

 

Lunga 's charisma and positivity is infectious. ©David Peter Harris

Lunga ‘s charisma and positivity is infectious. ©David Peter Harris

Lunga Sizani who joined as a tutor in 2014 after a friend told him about the Winter School initiative; this was his second year tutoring at the Winter School. He told us,

“Waking up early in the cold and dark every morning before coming to winter school is well worth the effort and time it takes, as I am able to help young learners who are also enduring the same every morning to be there and further themselves. It’s inspiring to provide to younger students a positive role model they can look up to”, Lunga says, smiling.

Aphiwe Sobutyu ©David Peter Harris

IkamvaYouth has shown Aphiwe, that anythingthing is possible ©David Peter Harris

Aphiwe Sobutyu became an iKamvanite in 2010 whilst he was still a learner in Grade 10; the program helped propel him to the top of his class at school, whilst showing him different vocations like camping and going to the aquarium.

“I became a leader amongst my peers; my friends started asking me for help with their academic problems all the time” he joyously admitted

In 2012 IkamvaYouth was able to provide Aphiwe with application fees for University. He tells us about the self-discovery that the process generated by Ikamva brought about within himself, generating self-confidence in his abilities.

“Through IkamvaYouth, I have seen abilities and traits in myself that I did not know I had.”

Aphiwe is currently studying Public Management and in the future wishes to work in the government. What makes you do what you do, we asked? “I live through the adage that if you fall, pick yourself up and shake off that dust and keep on going, and you can conquer the world.”

Thando believes positive role models ©David Peter Harris

Thando believes positive role models are the key to South Africas success. ©David Peter Harris

Thando Nomfazi joined IkamvaYouth in Grade 10, wanting to learn more and add solutions to what he had learnt at school; “within the first 6 months from joining, I saw a massive improvement both in my school work and attitude. In Grade 11 I even received a Bursary”. A charismatic role model, Thando tells us, “Being part of IkamvaYouth has taught me how to be patient and how to be comfortable with myself”. He added that

“ I think mentoring students form high schools, even if it is only a few students you can make a big difference in South Africa as a whole, because those that you have mentored will grow with the right attitude and transfer it to the next generation, and will grow and change our country.”

Thando is now studying Civil Engineering and one day hopes to be a project manager.

All three of the tutors were filled with an immense amount of pride at being able to pass on their knowledge attitude and spirit on to the younger students helping instill a sense of pride and passion in themselves and their future.

IkamvaYouth runs their Winter School program  every year during the mid year school break.

IkamvaYouth currently has branches in Ivory Park in Gauteng, the greater Cato Manor area and Molweni in KwaZulu-Natal and in Khayelitsha, Nyanga and Masiphumelele in the Western Cape. A new star is about to be added to the Western Cape, with a new branch that will soon be opening in Atlantis, in partnership with GreenCape.

Ursula Wellman. ©David Peter Harris

Ursula Wellman. ©David Peter Harris

Ursula Wellmann, Skills Practitioner at GreenCape, uncovered some of the details, in conversation with Eco Atlas. The branch will start off focusing on Grade 10 and 11 kids, who will attend tutoring sessions twice every week and on Saturdays, hosted at Proteus Technical High School in Atlantis. IkamvaYouth will also be providing mentoring and support for Grade 12 learners to help with career advice and applications to tertiary institutions. Ursula’s work is very focused on the development of Atlantis; when we asked her how the partnership came about, she tells us:

“IkamvaYouth’s 13 year proven track record speaks for itself; that this programme, ‘for youth by youth’ delivers astounding results and makes many dreams a reality.”

Atlantis is in very good hands, and the future of our youth is looking bright and strong.’

If you are interested in becoming a tutor at their new branch please contact yanga@ikamvayouth.org,

For more information and how you can support iKamva Youth visit their website.

The Greyton Transition Town Project

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 New knowledge and ability through tummies and trash

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The concept of community participation is one that enjoys much support in theory and far less in reality. Apart from awe at power and celebrity, online petitions and taxes, I mean. At some point, one realises that society, an apartheid legacy and the economy are just not going to cut it if you’re investigating or investing in living consciously. Going greener isn’t simple. Investing in equality isn’t easy. And yet, some people do both anyway, and in one part of the Western Cape they have a name for this.

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Welcome to Greyton Transition Town, an ideology in action that belies the faded tourist billboard that welcomes you to leafy rural suburbia, its many gift shops and art galleries and its many more economically challenged citizens, mostly only seen milling about near the local shops. As a person of relative privilege in or visiting South Africa, how do you address the apathy and disempowerment that a legacy of colonialism, apartheid and economic disadvantage incurs, though? Marshall starts with the stomach, and makes his way to the trash can.

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He and Transition Town partner, Nicola, are actively addressing the realities that surround them. Nicola is an animal sanctuary owner, fundraiser, events coordinator and go-to person for the movement which takes its inspiration from a similar project in Totnes, United Kingdom. Together, they run garden and feeding schemes at local schools, teaching children and teens self-sufficiency and healthy eating habits through a process called permaculture. Permaculture is an organic gardening practise that uses various natural laws to extract abundance from the earth without compromising its ability to feed future generations. The focus on permaculture encouraged them to approach local farmers, who now use no chemicals on parts of their fields, and sell directly to residents at a local market, increasing their profit margins and reducing the amount of packaging and the impact of the cold chain in the process.   The new knowledge these youngsters develop also gives them new work and career opportunities, as Marshall is often contacted by bodies seeking exactly their expertise.

Recognising that there was also an opportunity in and need for recycling they organised an independent recycler to collect trash regularly, and started a swap shop to encourage locals to bring in recyclable goods. The citizen recyclers are paid in clothes, food, shoes and other necessities given by larger chains and supportive charities, empowering those with less cash and changing the way locals view trash. Speaking of which, The Transition Town movement also birthed the Trash to Treasure Festival, which rehabilitated an old dumpsite with a clean-up and a new orchard and threw a big party to bring attention to the potential in our waste and the waste of our potential. It’s clear to see that these collective efforts are not a waste of time.

Their headquarters, The Eco Lodge, is a repurposed municipal building that now hosts and accommodates community gatherings for people at every level of the LSM ladder, from school tours to mini-conferences, and if you’re lucky, you may get a vegan meal from Ruwayda, Marshall’s loving wife. If you’re not, you could visit Pure Café, a plant-based eatery that specialises in the most mouth-watering desserts that are completely animal-free (vegan).

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Whether you remember it as a transition town or simply those guys giving kids in Genadendal a chance, this is a great example of the power of intention, action and its knock-on effect in building a more inclusive and empowered community.

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TIP : to get the full experience, get your hands dirty and add your story to the bigger picture.

(Read more about Greyton Transition Town and get all their contact details on their Eco Atlas page.)

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