Teach with Africa

One of the critical outcomes of this pilot project that CAN be prescribed is the need to document the project and its processes and systems that develop over the next two months. Each team member will be reporting back to his or her faculty sponsor, which will be shared with TWA. Additionally, each week Jim or Jack will send a coordinator’s report. A weekly update from each team area (education, Green MBA and psych) will be sent to Amy regarding the projects for that week, including descriptions of the project(s) as well as observations and reflections.

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TWA and the LEAP School are seriously committed to supporting our fellows while they are in-country and afterward, and we have a multi-tiered framework in place to give them as much support as possible. Amy Schoew, TWA Executive Director, was on-site for the launch of the program (for 3 days prior to the program start through the end of the first week). Darcy Campbell, a professor of education at SFSU and a teacher trainer and mentor, accompanied Amy and was instrumental in assisting with the facilitation of group reflection and discussion.

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At the end of every day at camp next week, John, Bonisile and Fozia Safodien, the Director of Life Orientation at LEAP, will have a group session with TWA fellows to reflect and process with the team as part of their orientation into the LEAP School program. They will be learning about the LEAP School program in an extremely hands-on experience.

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We had as much interaction with LEAP School students as could be arranged given the holiday schedule, but next week’s four-day camp with the Grade 12 students will be a wonderful and thoughtful introduction to more of the learners. On July 14, the week after TWA fellows return from camp, the LEAP School will resume and students will be back in classes. During this time the TWA fellows will also visit and participate in the local primary schools from which most of the LEAP students come so that the fellows can see how incredibly difficult the learning environment is for these students and what academic preparation (or lack thereof) they arrive with at the LEAP School as 9th graders.

With the majority of our team arrived by June 30, the Teach with Africa July/August 2008 Program in Cape Town began with a trip up famed Table Mountain, for our first team meeting with John Gilmour, founder of The LEAP School, and Bonisile Ntlemeza, assistant director of life orientation. John specifically chose to start the entire program overlooking on the city centre and outlying suburbs, to give the students a geographical context for the economic, historical and social issues they will encounter. The spectacular beauty of Cape Town, the bays, the mountain ranges, and the landscapes was the beginning of this unique experience that is uniquely Africa, which John describes as “having the beauty and the pain of Africa always in your face.”

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Accommodations at Howard’s End Manor are working well so far, although the food budget will need to be adjusted (increased) and we are working on projecting realistic food costs. Also, SIM cards from the mobile stores in South Africa do not work in most (nearly all) US cellular phone models, and since we required that the team members have cellular phone for safety reasons, the team members had to purchase cell phones for their two-month stay.

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All of the fellows from our education partners (Dominican University of CA and the Wright Institute) and Jim Smith, the July coordinator, were in-country by July 2. Due to significant research and academic obligations with his doctoral program, Ben Ogden is participating in a peripheral role for this project and we are delighted that he has been able to connect with the LEAP School and will be able to participate as a fellow in a future program. Molly Malone was unable to make the logistics for this year’s program work and hopes to participate in the future as well. Mike Rettburg is expected to arrive July 9 or 10. 

Fellows on-site: Alison Waters, Crissy Dyke, Emily Courtney, John Kennedy, Susie Heller, Elizabeth Schoettle, Brian Sedgeley, and Lindsay Logan. Adjunct: Ben Ogden

TWA Coordinator/July: Jim Smith

TWA staff during Week One: Amy Schoew, Executive Director

Additional team support during Week One: Darcy Campbell, early childhood education liaison and teacher trainer

Just a brief posting to let everyone know that we had an incredibly successful Inaugural Event on February 7th in San Francisco, with 200+ attendees and over $50,000 raised for Teach with Africa!  We also made some wonderful new contacts and met deeply committed supporters who clearly believe in our mission and are willing to offer significant resources to insure our longevity.  We are enormously grateful to all who made this possible.   

Hi Everyone: My name is Jack O’Neill and I live in Massachusetts. I have been working for the past seven years as a Clinical Social Worker in a large (700 students) Adult Learning Center in the City of Brockton, Massachusetts. The Adult Learning Center works with a primarily immigrant population, teaching English as a second language and preparing students for a high school equivalency diploma. Prior to the ALC, I worked for the US Government in the Veterans Administration where I was the Service Chief for a large Social Work Department (70+ Social Workers) and later as an administrator of a very large health clinic(Mental and Physical) for war veterans in Downtown Boston. I am married (almost 40 years) and I have two grown children and two grandchildren. I was a classmate of Margie Schlenoff (Founder of Teach With Africa) at Columbia University in New York, many years ago. I am very much looking forward to traveling to South Africa and working with students in the LEAP program this summer. It was very nice to read the entries of the students in this Forum, and it gave me a better understanding of the program. I’d be interested in hearing from anyone else who would like to reply.

Hi, my name is Asanda Sigigaba. I was doing grade 12 at LEAP this year and I want to become a teacher. My personal journey experiences has led me to this career so that is why I feel its worth to be shared with other young people. The reason why I want to be a teacher is because I want to work with young people simply because I enjoy working with them and I know I have a lot to give and learn from them. I would also like to share my personal experiences as a young girl growing up in rural areas and township.  I think becoming a teacher will help me to learn more about myself and other people and I believe that’s how one personally grows. My aim as a teacher is to teach students more about life than just academics because I really believe that it’s important to know it not saying academics are less important or anything. I honestly think that this country needs more young people like me to become teachers who can try to understand students, help and really care for them.