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Teresa Clarke: An Advocate for Education in South Africa
Another in a series of occasional articles on HBS graduates who have taken a leave from their careers to explore nonbusiness endeavors.
It’s no surprise that Teresa H. Clarke (MBA 1988/JD 1989) finds herself on a mission to make education more accessible to the world’s poorer children. It runs in the family.
“My grandmother ran a few Head Start centers in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s,” Clarke says. “And my mother was a teacher, then a principal, and eventually a superintendent in a poor area of the city. She’s still a major advocate for educating the poor.”
Clarke, a graduate of Harvard College, is also committed to public service. Re- cently she put her career on hold for six months to help make a difference in the lives of hundreds of South African children. She left her job as managing director at Abt Associates, South Africa, and spent a brief period as president of Africa.com before deciding to devote more time and energy to raising money for the Student Sponsorship ProgrammeSouth Africa (SSP-SA). With Nyagaka Ongeri (MBA 1997), Clarke cofounded SSP-SA in 1999.
“We have a chance now to become a major player in the nonprofit sector in South Africa,” Clarke says. Having witnessed the tremendous success of SSP-SA in its first two years, she is keenly aware of the potential that the program has to influence the country’s future.
Modeled after the Student/Sponsor Partnership in New York City, the SSP-SA recruits professionals to help underwrite the cost of a high-school education for talented, disadvantaged students in and around Johannesburg. Clarke’s own experience as a sponsor and board member for the New York program was the spark that led to the development of SSP-SA. Drawn by the many changes unfolding in South Africa under Nelson Mandela’s leadership, Clarke left her position as a vice president at Goldman Sachs to set up a regional office for Abt Associates in Johannesburg in 1995. Not long after settling in her new surroundings, she “bumped into” Ongeri, whose office was in the same building.
“I was passionate about the S/SP approach and its potential amid South Africa’s climate of change,” she says. “We realized that South Africa needed S/SP, so we decided to do it.” After raising seed money from a few HBS classmates and professors, Clarke and Ongeri launched SSP-SA two years ago. In its first year, the organization placed 25 students in the top private and public schools around Johannesburg, with the financial assistance and mentoring efforts of 25 local sponsors. The second year of the program, begun in January, launched another 40 students. Clarke hopes to place 60 students in 2002 and 100 in 2003.
“The schools are very receptive,” notes Clarke. “There’s such a need for these institutions to reflect the black majority population, but they lack the knowledge of the black South African community, the relationships, and the funding to do so. They know that what we are doing is important for the future of South Africa, and they are grateful for our help.”
The next year is critical to SSP-SA’s sustainability. Having received support from companies such as J.P. Morgan, Anglo American Corporation, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell Merchant Bank, and Educational Development Trust of South Africa — a “Who’s Who of corporate South Africa,” as she puts it — Clarke sees her next step as getting support from U.S. foundations.
“We are at an important juncture,” says Clarke, whose enthusiasm for SSP-SA and advocacy for education would make her mother and grandmother proud. “I am 100 percent focused on SSP-SA and on laying the groundwork so that the organization can really make a difference.”
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