Home away from home: Garner at ALA

When looking for an opportunity to expand the scope of people you meet and the things you learn in your high school years, you consider semester away programs. I am going to be sharing my experience from the SEGL program in South Africa at the African Leadership Academy (ALA).

The first and one of the most important questions for many is what it is like being away from home for a whole semester. For me and almost all others in the program, homesickness was a challenge in the beginning. However, many others felt the same way as me, giving me people to lean on. In my semester away program I also had an advisor, similar to SPA, that was able to help me navigate this and other struggles. This ties into the unique community aspects of SEGL at ALA.

For my cohort from the US, there were 18 students, 10 of which were white. However, ALA is a completely different story. During my session there were over 70 ethnic groups and 35+ countries represented, coming from all over Africa. This was the core aspect of the experience that I personally benefited from most. Getting to hear stories from many different people with so many different experiences is eye opening to say the least. I constantly found myself having philosophical discussions with friends and wanting to learn more about their lives back home. This gave me a new perspective of the world with a new method of tackling thought-provoking questions. This unique culture was corroborated by the mentally challenging classes.

At ALA I took all the core classes I needed and was not behind on any of them when I returned to SPA. Along with those, I took Ethics and Leadership, a SEGL required class, and one elective, African Politics: Global Perspectives and Research. In my Ethics and Leadership class I learned how to conquer ethical dilemmas and then created a class policy document to provide solutions on the gender gap in education in Tanzania, which we presented to two members of the Tanzanian Parliament.

In African Politics: Global Perspectives and Research, I discussed why Africa has more coups than the rest of the world, and also learned about the processes that allow authoritarian governments to stay in power. For me, I felt as though the classes were harder compared to SPA, however there was less busy work and more mentally challenging work.

Overall my semester away at SEGL at ALA was one of the most unique experiences I will ever have the opportunity for. From one of the most diverse places in the world, to one of the most mentally challenging and critically thinking places. If you are interested in different cultures, global perspectives, entrepreneurship, or leadership, SEGL at ALA might be the program for you.