Barnard hosts third annual symposium in South Africa

While many of their peers did spring break on the beach in Florida, six Barnard students spent last week in South Africa at the college’s third annual global symposium, where over 460 people convened to discuss the female leadership.

The students were joined by Barnard President Debora Spar and a handful of other Barnard faculty members at the event, "Women Changing Africa," in Johannesburg, which brought together female leaders in business, politics and academia from across Africa.

“I think that Africa is really at an interesting moment right now. There are some really bright signs of optimism on the continent, and a lot of those bright signs are women. Women are really leading the change in Africa,” Spar said, adding that Africa seemed like the obvious choice for this year’s symposium.

The annual conferences, which had previously been held in Beijing and Dubai, were started three years ago to focus on various parts of the world where women are making big changes for the next generation. Next year’s symposium will be held in Mumbai, India.

One panel called “Conversations on Leadership” focused on the current progress of female leaders in Africa and featured speakers like South African central bank Governor Gill Marcus, Ferial Haffajee, editor-in-chief of City Press, South Africa’s leading news source, and Rwandan senator Aloisea Inyumba, among others.

Another, focused on continuing women’s leadership in Africa and finding ways to inspire young women to succeed, included speakers like Susan Mboya, founder and president of the Zawadi Africa Education Fund and general manager of Coca-Cola, and Ndidi Nwuneli, founder of LEAP Africa.

Marcus’ speech made a strong impression on Freesia Levine, BC ’11 and one of the six undergraduates chosen to attend the symposium.

“She [Marcus] said it’s much harder to fight for issues than it is against issues. I think it is really powerful to switch our perspective and use that to drive our efforts,” she said of Marcus’ speech.

Spar said she believes encouraging women to take on professional and leadership roles in Africa was one of the primary goals of the conference and that she was particularly pleased with the workshops Barnard held for local high school students.

In addition to Levine, Reni Calister, BC ’11, Hayley Milliman, BC ’12, Renee Sladja, BC ’13, Mbali Zoni, BC ’14, and Clare Korir, BC ’12, attended the conference and moderated workshops for local high school students.

“I was absolutely blown away by the eloquence, strength, and purpose of their [students’] ideas they had come up with in just 10 minutes. Young people can be an enormous force in change,” said Levine, who is interested in going into education.

Spar said more and more students at Barnard are choosing to help the world abroad.

“We are already seeing our students do more study abroad programs in Africa. There are vast opportunities in public health, human rights, and education. There is no dearth of opportunities on the continent,” said Spar.
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