From the office of President Michael McRobbie, Indiana University
August 30th, 2013
Unfortunately, the IU delegation brought with it to Cape Town a
bit of bad weather, including cloudy skies, rain and brisk temperatures
in the low 50s. (Of course, I’m guessing that heat-stricken Hoosiers
would happily take those temperatures right now!)
That said, any weather-related blues that delegation members might’ve
been feeling were quickly washed away this morning, not by the rain,
but by the smiles on the faces of the children of
Christel House South Africa.
 |
Senior Director of International Alumni Eric DeHaan,
IU President
Michael McRobbie, IU First Lady Laurie
McRobbie watch students perform
at Christel House South Africa. |
For those who may not know it, Christel House was founded by
Indianapolis philanthropist Christel DeHaan to help children around the
world overcome poverty and realize their hopes and dreams. Here in South
Africa, Christel House (which also has centers in India, Mexico, the
U.S. and Venezuela) is transforming lives by providing more than 700
K-through-12th-grade children from some of Cape Town's most impoverished
communities with a quality education, as well as proper nutrition,
health care and a safe, nurturing environment.
Indeed, the numbers reflect the remarkable success of Christel House
South Africa. They include a 100 percent graduation rate over the last
four years, a 99 percent retention rate and a 98 percent attendance
rate. Christel House achieved these results while enrolling its entire
student body from severely disadvantaged communities, transporting those
students to and from school, feeding them several meals each day and
providing support to children and their families facing a wide range of
socio-economic challenges, including neglect, domestic violence,
physical and sexual abuse, and gang violence, to name just a few.
 |
IU President Michael McRobbie talks computers
with a Christel House South Africa student. |
Impressive as those statistics are, they are no substitute for seeing
these amazing students, all fully uniformed and full of energy, in
their learning environment. Following an instructive and insightful
meeting with the school's leadership, IU President Michael McRobbie and
First Lady Laurie McRobbie were escorted to the front of a large
assembly hall, where the entire Christel House student body, teachers
and staff had gathered to welcome their Hoosier guests. Once seated,
they were treated to a rousing performance by the school band, several
sing-alongs and a spirited step-show. In the middle of these
performances, a teenage girl confidently strode up to the stage to
introduce President McRobbie and invite him to say a few words. Given a
microphone, McRobbie told the attentive students about the importance of
education, how inspired he was by their accomplishments and how he
hoped that, one day, they might even continue their studies at IU.
After the assembly gathering, McRobbie and members of the delegation
were given a walking tour of the school's impressive facilities,
including a fully stocked library where a trio of young boys flipped
through a book about soccer and a Dell-furnished computer lab where
McRobbie enjoyed putting on his IT hat and chatting with several young
children about email, spreadsheets and word processing. From there, it
was off to Cape Town's oldest township and one of the communities served
by Christel House, Langa. Established in 1923, Langa is one of the many
areas in South Africa where blacks were forced to live before the
apartheid era. The location of much resistance to the national ruling
system of racial segregation that dominated South African society for
nearly five decades, it has had a long, sometimes tortured history—a
history that was eloquently recounted by our tour guide, a young Langa
resident and former Christel House student named Oowa.
 |
Members of the IU delegation receive a tour of the Langa
township from
Oowa, right, a community resident and
former Christel House student. |
Oowa, whose desire to be a professional tour guide was inspired by
his time at Christel House, was candid about the many challenges facing
Langa, including crime, poverty, unemployment and severely constrained
living accommodations (he, himself, shared an approximately
10-foot-by-10 foot bedroom with three other families). At the same time,
he spoke proudly of the positive changes he felt were taking place in
his community, while challenging his own generation to learn more about
those who sacrificed before it in the struggle against apartheid.
Christel House provided a most interesting model of education and
inspiring lead-in to the next stop on the delegation's journey through
South Africa: the
University of Cape Town, Africa's top-ranked university and the oldest university in South Africa, founded in 1829 as the South African College.
Nestled in the breathtaking slopes of Devil's Peak mountain, UCT
boasts top-ranked programs in a number of areas, including business,
economics, education, geography, history, law, psychology and politics.
It also counts five Nobel Laureates among its alumni.
Enrollment at UCT continues to grow—by a third each decade since
1950. Today, the university has over 25,000 students, half of whom are
black, and it now has over 110,000 alumni around the world.
Despite its strengths and successes, UCT has come to a realization,
according to Deputy Vice Chancellor of Internationalization Thandabantu
Nhlapo, that the university can no longer separate its strong academic
and research enterprise with a need to produce graduates who are
internationally competitive and committed to engaged citizenship and
social justice.
 |
Members of the IU delegation pose for a picture with
the leadership of the University of Cape Town. |
To this end, Nhlapo and his UCT colleagues were happy to hear
President McRobbie share IU's mission of increased internationalization
and signal the university's willingness to explore the possibility of
student exchanges and faculty research collaboration, especially in
subject areas in which both universities have strengths.
Prior to the meeting, the IU delegation sat down for coffee with two
IU students, Luke Vroom and Lauren Miller, studying at UCT this
semester. Both described how enjoyable their experience at UCT has been
and said they would encourage more students to consider coming to Cape
Town, where they were struck by the amazing diversity, history and
beauty of the natural surroundings, to study.
UCT Deputy Vice Chancellor Sandra Klopper, who is also a professor of
African art, suggested there may be potential for collaboration in the
arts, law, music and the natural sciences, among other areas, adding
with a laugh, “You know, I think more than half of my colleagues in
African art received their training at IU!” Klopper's comments came
right after Harold Kincaid, a professor from the UCT School of
Economics, introduced himself to the delegation by telling the group
that he possessed a total of three IU degrees.
While no specifics were agreed upon just yet, both sides agreed that,
as a next step, they would explore a number of specific areas for
potential collaboration and cooperation. And it was clear that leaders
of both schools were on their way to more productive discussions down a
path toward more opportunities for future generations of students, both
in the U.S. and here in South Africa, including, just maybe, someone
like Oowa or another of the amazing kids at Christel House.
