The Ubuntu Leadership College
Ubuntu’s vision is to mentor and educate the next generation of African leaders. It sounds great, right? But just like everything else, when you dive in deep things begin to look a little more complicated.
We opened the Ubuntu Academy School in 2017 to move forward in our mission of providing players with a quality education. We quickly discovered that teaching boys from Grades 6 through 12 isn’t easy! Just like in any other country, our students are at a range of different levels academically. In the United States, the No Child Left Behind policy aims to ensure that no student is left in the dust as their peers excel in the classroom. In South Africa when a student struggles and ultimately fails a grade twice, they are still pushed through to the next one regardless of preparedness. The Ubuntu School faces the same problem. After struggling through online courses, working with tutors one on one and receiving targeted guidance, some of our high school boys weren’t able to progress on to the next grade. The questions arose: how do we help the boys who struggle in a traditional academic setting? Do we keep with the trend of pushing boys through grade levels or do we find another solution?
The boys in the Leadership College with Pete.
Wrestling with these questions, the staff came up with the idea of founding a program whose aim would be to come alongside those specific boys who continue to do poorly year after year. Ubuntu founder Casey Prince and Academy School headmaster David Handyside were unwilling to shift the boys out to a different school, risking the loss of meaningful connection and ultimately making the decision that the boys in question would not be professional footballers. The result of much thought was the Leadership College, a new endeavour spearheaded by Pete Ward. In Pete’s words, the Leadership College is “basically moving away from a traditional learning environment to one that’s far more practical and skill-based. The advantages are obviously that we have a lot more time with a small group of boys and they get exposed to very different skills they wouldn’t be exposed to in the classroom.”
The LC in Kalk Bay learning the ins and outs of the restaurant industry.
Practically, the Leadership College involves a mix of volunteering and service projects coupled with a variety of courses pursued in the classroom. To start off the year, the boys are taking several classes on leadership and English with more to be added on as they progress. Pete plans to spend time in the months to come focusing on topics such as personal finance, budgeting, and peer mentorship to name a few. “The nice thing is that it’s really flexible and it’s geared toward how the boys are coping, and then we can adapt,” Pete states.
The ultimate goal of the College is to help the boys enrolled figure out who they are, what they like, and what skills they have. Pete adds that he anticipates their football will improve as a result of being in this stimulating environment as well. From there, the hope is for the students to discover internships and opportunities in the future that utilize their particular gifts and skills to serve others. Pete’s heart for the program is very geared around discipleship and mentorship, and he’s excited to have a small group of boys to deeply invest in. To this end, he is eager to engage in volunteer opportunities alongside the boys and encourage a connection that is beyond what would develop if they were solely in the classroom. He explains his hopes for the future: “For me, it’s seeing them progress. By the time they leave, they’re further on in their maturity, faith, and character than they would have been if they’d been sitting in a class hating school.”
