South Africa, July 2013: Final Update

This July, five Samford students traveled to South Africa to complete a long-term service project conducted with Living Way, a Cape-Town based micro-enterprise center. The purpose of the project is to develop leadership competencies of Samford students through active engagement and service. Updates from South Africa are available here: update one and update two.

The service project started in 2011, when three Samford students worked with Living Way to develop an entrepreneurship screening tool. In 2012, a team returned to begin developing curriculum for students who had been selected to participate in the organization's Agri-Academy, a mentoring program for aspiring farmers. This year's team, which included Samford undergraduates Tracy Knapp (as team leader), Clarissa Donaldson, Natalie Bennie, Rachel Eller, and Brittony Mays, completed the basic business curriculum that was started in 2012.

During the trip, students also had the opportunity to visit many significant historical and cultural sites, and spend time with their peers at Stellenbosch University, located near Cape Town. This fall, the Mann Center will continue the dialogue with students and faculty at Stellenbosch's Frederick Van Zyl Slabbert Leadership Center through long-distance conversations that focus on similarities between the end of apartheid and the civil rights movement.

Photographs from the trip are available on the Mann Center website.