This opportunity that was given to me, is a once in a lifetime chance. I thank you for choosing me to be one of the few to experience it. Going to South Africa was life-changing. While there, I connected so much with the girls and learned a lot about their culture/way of life. I must say, it was surprising to see how big the similarities were. I look forward to future experiences with the LEAD program.

Thank you so much for allowing me to be an RA for the pilot LEAD Global in Cape Town! I enjoyed working with the kids far more than I ever imagined I could. I probably learned more from them than I could in any classroom. Each child had a unique story and the few I had the pleasure of knowing quite well will never be forgotten. I hope to see them again next year…if the opportunity presents itself! Your little yellow blessings were truly a blessing to me as well. Again, thank you so much!

I would like to express my sincere gratitude for this excellent and informative programme. I want to thank you guys for the terrific job you did, specifically to me. The bottom line is that I really appreciate the sincerity, diligence, and the effort you put into giving us this quality programme. I want to thank you very much for the fantastic lessons you prepared for us to attend, they were really beneficial to me. Thank you for this life changing experience. You stretched our minds and thoughts and provided a road map for ever-greater achievements. I want to thank you guys for your time, effort, patience, love care, and support you gave us. To be honest you have made me realize that even if I come from a poor family I can make it, and yes I will make it. One other thing I will like to share with you is that when I came here at Wits my vocabulary was too bad but now it’s much better and that really makes me happy. Actually I want to thank you for the kind of meals you provided (to be honest I am not used to such meals). And most importantly, I will never forget you guys. Above all, thank you very much. May the good God make you succeed in all you do and add days to your lives.

I have accomplished a few things in my life that I am very proud of and I have been blessed with so many amazing life experiences and opportunities I could go all day listing them. However, I can assure you that very few of my life experiences in my fourteen years of existence have compared to my time in South Africa at the University at Cape Town and my visit to Spelman College in Atlanta.

To simply say “thank you” is the ultimate understatement because words cannot fully describe how I felt about being invited and selected in this endeavor. For starters, the women at Spelman were some of the most sophisticatedly intelligent, socially and culturally conscious and beautiful women of color I have ever met. The campus community was beautiful and I am definitely planning to apply there as an undergraduate.

As I stated in my closing remarks as the Mistress of Ceremonies in South Africa, The LEAD Global Program offered each of us a human touch into the lives of people we have often read about or viewed through distorted pictures, mistruths and half told stories. I really can’t express to you how much this experience has meant to me. Being in South Africa, I not only learned about the beauty and richness of the South African culture but I also learned so much about myself and my future aspirations into relation to my community, to the Motherland and to the even larger global community.

From the warm hospitality in the small villages and schools, the breath taking landscapes of Cape Town, and the cultural connection to the musi theood, the song, and the dance, I have not simply visited South Africa, but I have embodied the treasures that South Africa has so discreetly hidden from the rest of the world. I am humbled and appreciative that the Wight Foundation and the LEAD Program chose me as a leader to embark in this journey. Thank you again for your trust and support…I am forever indebted.

I had the opportunity to serve as a Residential Assistant (RA) with the Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) Global program in Cape Town, South Africa. This experience was nothing less than amazing. I really enjoyed interacting with all of the students, especially the South African learners. My track was the Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. The five male students I was mainly responsible for were South African. They were Rushin, Simamkele, Siseko, Mzuvumile, and Unathi. The program impacted me on different levels as it did with the participants being focused on. It helped me reflect as a recent Morehouse Graduate, be more open minded and humble as a Black American, and grow as a mentor/ mentee.

Having a background of low socio-economic status informs my outlook on the world. Being able to see a developing country has made me more humble. Observing the students and reflecting on myself allowed me to learn from them. It was fun to work with the groups to assuage the language barriers and fears. This was different from helping with a homework assignment. Shaping and molding their creative development without taking over with my ideas was an intense task. Working together on such fun and non-scripted projects really helped us build a good relationship faster. It was pleasing to see the students perform with such enthusiasm and enjoyment. I learned that mentors struggle to help without taking over. This draws on the importance of effective communication between both the mentee and mentor.

In summary, I was largely touched in multiple ways by this experience. It is evident by the closing ceremony that the students were moved by this program. Serving as an RA and being available to the students at all times was crucial to building such strong relationships quickly. The trips to the Vanguard Health Community Center gave them the opportunity to ask an expert about the steps to securing a career in the health sciences field. The program set up was well designed. All of the speakers were knowledgeable and open to questions. It was my pleasure to serve the students and LEAD Global program in South Africa.

My experience starts at Oliver Tambo airport where I meet a woman I consider pretty young who claims to have been sent to take us right to Cape Town. I am first impressed by the fact that things have been arranged so that we do not even have to travel alone. After we arrive to the campus of UCT (University of Cape Town), I am stricken by the way we are warmly welcomed. Again, I realise how well organised the program is, without any other clue than what I am watching some people around me do (taking names of the newly arrived, showing them their rooms, chatting with them etc.). Very soon I meet wonderful people called ‘’RA’s’’ who I will say took care of us in an extraordinary way during the ten days of duration the program captured. They actually sacrificed their time for us being available all the time and that also impressed me. It is true we were kind of annoying sometimes, but they were always there for us. I even remember one of them calling us: ‘’ bantwana bam’’ which means ‘my children’ in a South African language.

Later on, I can see my excitement grow through the different activities we are exposed to. First of all, the drumming experience is fantastic and as never before I can see what drumming in group causes as compared to drumming alone. We are then brought at the green point stadium where we are exposed to the feelings South-African people have with regards to the coming World cup. I never saw this kind of excitement from people who can’t wait to make the world see what they are all about and if it was not because of the LEAD program I would not have experience it the way I did. We had other very fun activities among which the tour of Cape Town. Actually, I want to say that I learned a lot from those and I am very grateful for the opportunity we were given to explore our surroundings the way we did.

Talking about the future career experience, I would say it has been far better than what I was expecting. The LEAD program indeed met his goal by exposing us to jobs we never heard about before such as audiology, occupational therapy, speech language pathology etc. I am now more confident about the huge opportunities the world can offer to somebody who wants to make a positive change around him/her.

In summary, the LEAD global made a tremendous impact in my life in such a way that when it was time for us to separate, I only had my eyes to cry and wish that if it was possible it could be extended or could happen again. I do not know how to thank each one who contributed for this program to succeed and if there is one thing I can add to this, I would say: ‘’ THEIR REWARD SHALL BE GREAT.’’