Age: 17
Gender: Female
Home country: Pretoria, South Africa
Activities: Community service, medicine

A global nomad before she came to ALA, Ela seeks to use her interest in paediatric medicine to have an impact in Africa and to help others see Africa in a positive light.

Ela’s Dream:

As it is said at African Leadership Academy, a leader is an agent of positive change. I believe that leaders are not simply born, but that they are nurtured. My core leadership values were shaped by a supportive family and valuable life experiences. These values include excellence, humility, integrity, courage and passion. I embody these values by being all that I can be, and through persevering with what I want to achieve.

At African Leadership Academy I am part of a student group that founded an after-school program – KWIT: Kids With Insane Talent – in a community primary school in the local township of Swartkop. The purpose of the program is to motivate students as individuals to continue with their education to a high school level, and to make them more socially bound within their student community. We developed the program which is modeled on the life orientation curriculum we study at African Leadership Academy and today students are increasingly socially bound as group and have a clearer sense of their passions for life as individuals.

In the future, I aspire to continue to make a difference to the lives of children in Africa through my interest in medical science and passion for social policy. Through this, I hope to bring about positive change in Africa.