During LEAD Cape Town, you will enroll in two courses for a total of six credits from Oglethorpe University. Everyone participates in the same courses: “Leadership: Global Theory and Practice” and “Global Citizenship and Civic Engagement.” To provide more flexibility in your course selection, you can choose to label these courses in a variety of disciplines on your transcript under the subjects of leadership, history, politics or sociology. Past students say that they have learned more about themselves from these two courses than any other class taken during their college career. Courses focus on who you are as an individual and where you want to go in life. They allow you to define your vision and values in a way that will provide you with clarity and direction after you return home.

We believe there is nothing more powerful than service learning to take your international experience to the next level. Service week is often the highlight of our students’ experience in Cape Town. Each year we work with community leaders and NGO’s to identify how to mindfully and sustainably support initiatives in local communities. Some of our favorite past projects include running after school programming for local youth, partnering with soup moms (community matriarchs) in Sir Lowry’s Pass, preparing meals at a local food kitchen, school beautification projects and business consulting for young entrepreneurs. This unique experience in Cape Town will deepen your connections with local leaders, with community members and with your peers.

Cape Town is well-known as one of the most adventurous places in the world. To take advantage, we include many adventure tours and activities into the program. You will hike Table Mountain, walk with elephants, go on a safari game drive, see penguins at Boulders Beach and cage dive with sharks. If you’re looking for more extreme adventures, you will also have the option to go bungee jumping from the world’s highest commercial bungee bridge. In addition, we partner with a local adventure company to connect you with additional bucket-list adventures such as sandboarding, seal snorkeling and skydiving. By stepping outside of your comfort zone alongside your peers, you will leave this program with incomparable life-long friendships.