A few weeks ago, 10 young people from Port Alfred and Bathurst boarded a plane to Chicago for the experience of a lifetime, to take part in the One Team, Two Continents (1T2C) Ambassador Programme. The programme teaches young people from Ndlambe and Chicago how to use the values of pluralism and social inclusion to find robotics-based solutions to problems in the real world. The 1T2C Ambassador program enables the participants from the two countries to travel and experience each other’s culture first hand.
The Ndlambe teenagers took part in a series of events during their visit to Chicago.
Their first stop was at one of the best technical schools in Chicago called Lindblom Math and Science Academy which had most of them wanting to enrol there there and then.
The team then spent an intense and exciting two days working on finishing to build their competing robot. Here the SA team members got the opportunity to contribute greatly in building the robot for the First Charged Up competition. The competition was a three day event, where the team competed in a series of matches. The team did not win but was awarded the First Midwest Regional Judges Award, which gives merit to a team’s unique efforts, performance, or dynamics. The team collaboration between the US and SA was one of the reasons highlighted for the award.
Outside of the robotics activities, the team got to visit various neighbourhoods, taste different cuisines and sight-see in Chicago’s iconic Chinatown, and Mexican-American neighbourhood, Little Village.
Recently, they gathered at Stenden SA to download, debrief and share the wonder and excitement. On the experiences front, nearly all said Chinatown was the biggest single challenge to their food and cultural frontiers. Socially, many of them remarked on the fact that no matter who you were, or where you came from, everyone was treated equally.
And, insightfully, one of the young people said, “I think one of the things both us and the Americans realised is that one person doesn’t represent a whole culture.”
The teenagers were under the supervision of Port Alfred based organisation Global Leading Light Initiative: a huge responsibility, acknowledged GLLI founder Dieudonné Allo.
“Of course there are many risks when you take 10 young people from 10 different families overseas. We made a commitment to their parents and we carried a hug responsibility on our shoulders,” Allo said.
Allo said GLLI had over the two years of the project fulfilled its mandate to expose children from Ndlambe to possibilities for technology related careers, in the context of inclusivity and pluralism.
“We will be supporting other organisations wanting to undertake this kind of project,” Allo said, “But after two intense years, GLLI will be taking a break from exchange projects.”
Arlene du Plessis whose son Peter was one of the team members, remarked on the changes she’d seen in the group.
First, she said, to ask teenagers to give up every Saturday night for team training – and have them do so willingly – was an achievement.
“When the group first met in September, they really were a bunch of shy introverts. Today tells you how confident this experience has made them,” Du Plessis said.
Project coordinator Fatima Momoti said, “One of the important goals of this project was to show these young people to think beyond the boundaries of Port Alfred and the careers they know, and I think in that we succeeded.”
Indeed, many of the group said they were inspired to pursue careers in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering or related IT fields.
Allo and Momoti summarised the prpoject’s financials and offered to email them to anyone who wanted a more detailed look.
The One Team, Two Continents Ambassador Program is a collaboration between Global Leading Light Initiatives, Agape Weks, the Chicago Knights Robotics Team, and Goldin Institute in partnership with the US Embassy in South Africa.
