Leadership Spotlight

"When other people start to fall over with leg cramps, you have to wonder what's going to happen to you." So said Rush McCloy, WG'05, who recently ran the 35-mile Two Oceans Ultra Marathon in Cape Town, South Africa, to raise money and awareness for Students4Students, the student-run nonprofit group that he co-founded in 2003.

Students4Students is a partnership of business school students and alumni committed to creating sustainable educational vehicles throughout the developing world, focusing on one region at a time in partnership with educationally focused non- governmental organizations. With members at Wharton, Harvard, Columbia and the University of Cape Town, Students4Students plans to expand to other business schools over the next several years.

Co-founder Sarah Ryerson, WG'05, started the organization out of gratitude for her own educational opportunities. She explained: "I would really like to see the organization be a true representative of business school students around the world, so that this is the one organization where business students feel like they can really give back through education."

As part of a five-year commitment to South Africa, Students4Students is working with the Ubuntu Education Fund, a Port Elizabeth-based nonprofit dedicated to education and health. The fund was founded in 1999 by Penn graduate Jacob Lief, C'99, who stresses that it is "not a charity. We build sustainable programs with tangible goals."

"We live in the communities where we work, we understand their needs, and, together with the community, we create sustainable development projects that truly empower people. Our success relies on our commitment to giving people the means to improve their own community." Lief spent time in South Africa as an undergraduate, when he had an eye-opening visit to a school in Port Elizabeth, "There were 90 kids in the classroom, but everyone was quiet—they just wanted to learn. It was very inspiring." Still an undergraduate, Lief held a raffle on Locust Walk to buy office supplies and opened shop in his dorm room.

Six years later, with offices in Port Elizabeth and Manhattan, Ubuntu serves 40,000 children each month and 13,000 adults each year. The Fund has helped develop community learning centers and health-education initiatives to teach responsible health practices in a country where more than a fifth of the adult population is infected with HIV or AIDS.

Students4Students has pledged to raise funds for Ubuntu's Mpilo-Lwazi health education program, which reaches more than 55,000 people through health education classes in 24 township schools, including youth counseling, community outreach workshops, and sustainable food gardens.

While in the townships, the Students4Students group also attended AIDS awareness workshops where health educators discussed sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS prevention. "The area is characterized by high unemployment and health issues," explained Javis Gqamlana, the director of the Clover County School, "but education is the passion that we want to spur because these kids are the future of our nation."

Ahead of next year's marathon, Students4Students organized a gala New York City benefit on May 12 toward an overall five-year goal of raising $5 million for education in South Africa.