[music]
[singing]
Mcebo Maziya: [speaking in Xhosa]
Mcebo Maziya: My name is Mcebo Maziya.
Mcebo Maziya: I am Xhosa by cultural heritage, as that is my tribe.
Mcebo Maziya: And I'm from South Africa.
Kamelia Lechani: [speaking in Arabic]
Kamelia Lechani: Hello. My name is Kamelia Lechani, from Morocco.
Kiiru "Sam" Gichohi: [speaking in Swahili]
Kiiru "Sam" Gichohi: My name is Kiiru Gichohi, also known as Sam.
Mattie Lillian Maboya: [Speaking in Pedi]
Mattie Lillian Maboya: My name is Mattie Lillian Maboya, and I
Mattie Lillian Maboya: am from South Africa.
Courage Matiza: [Speaking in Shona]
Courage Matiza: Hi, my name is Courage Matiza.
Courage Matiza: I am from Zimbabwe.
Kamelia Lechani: Most of us here just graduated from ALA,
Kamelia Lechani: and we are getting ready to go to college.
Fred Swaniker: I think it's a great time to be a young African right now.
Fred Swaniker: Because Africa today is maybe what China was 20 or 30 years ago.
Fred Swaniker: It's just starting to take off.
Fred Swaniker: These young people are the ones who are going to be able
Fred Swaniker: to capture these opportunities.
[singing]
Julio Blaise Maniratunga: So, what people would hear about leadership,
Julio Blaise Maniratunga: they may think it's only about politics and stuff,
but it's actually almost in anything.
[bus and crowd noises]
Fred Swaniker: A leader's effectiveness is only partly a
Fred Swaniker: function of their skills.
Fred Swaniker: A huge part of the effectiveness is the quality
Fred Swaniker: of the networks that they have. And the most powerful
Fred Swaniker: network that these young leaders have is actually with each other.
Heather Haynes: ["Welcome" in several languages.]
Heather Haynes: Welcome.
[waterfall]
Steve Boehlke: The most enduring way to impact
Steve Boehlke: leadership behavior is through what I call "breakthrough
Steve Boehlke: awareness," where the light bulb goes on.
Steve Boehlke: And that's what's terrific about the opportunities to
Steve Boehlke: work in the outdoors that the Blairstown Center provides.
Bryan Pannill: All you really have is yourself, the board,
Bryan Pannill: and the island.
Particpant: That's good.
Particpant: Lower it.
Olivia Iloetonma: Being at the Princeton-Blairstown
Olivia Iloetonma: Center, surrounded with such support, gave me the ability
Olivia Iloetonma: to have the courage to step up and do something I've never
Olivia Iloetonma: done before.
Courage Matiza: We basically had to travel from one tree to
Courage Matiza: another on a steel wire.
Mattie Lillian Maboya: I felt like I can do it.
Mattie Lillian Maboya: Like, if all these people think that I
can do it, why not?
Mcebo Maziya: What I learned today was the power
Mcebo Maziya: of respect for one another.
Mcebo Maziya: The power of taking
Mcebo Maziya: responsibility for your actions.
Mcebo Maziya: And the power of cooperation.
Mcebo Maziya: Because you can't make a big change alone.
Chris Bradford: One of the great things about working
Chris Bradford: with these young leaders is that they will start to draw
Chris Bradford: connections between different fields as they build
Chris Bradford: organizations with far-reaching impact.
Chris Bradford: So we're looking not only for the people who will build the
Chris Bradford: Googles of Africa, but also for the prominent writers of
Chris Bradford: the future, or artists.
Chris Bradford: And if we can bring them into one network, we think that
Chris Bradford: they can collaborate through their lives to create a very
Chris Bradford: different Africa.
Kiiru "Sam" Gichohi: You can only handle a network of 120
Kiiru "Sam" Gichohi: people in your life at any given time.
Kiiru "Sam" Gichohi: And I plan on finding the 120 people who matter most to me
Kiiru "Sam" Gichohi: in the world, and in those 120 people, to find the five or
Kiiru "Sam" Gichohi: seven who make me a better person every day.
[cicadas humming, crowd noise]
Linda Kay Klein: So today, we're going to talk a little bit about home.
Courage Matiza: This session basically helped me to really
Courage Matiza: look and say, "OK, this is what I've received.
Courage Matiza: What is it that I want to embrace, and what is that I
Courage Matiza: want to release?"
[cicadas humming, crowd noise]
Chris Bradford: What we're trying to do is connect these
Chris Bradford: amazing young leaders with individuals who can help them
Chris Bradford: make their dreams become a reality.
Shirley M. Tilghman: It is so inspiring to see the students
Shirley M. Tilghman: who are setting as one of their goals, to become the
Shirley M. Tilghman: generation of leaders who are going to really make Africa a
Shirley M. Tilghman: place that is prosperous and healthy and forward-thinking
Shirley M. Tilghman: for all of its people.
Shirley M. Tilghman: It is a mission that we resonate with very much here
Shirley M. Tilghman: at Princeton,
Shirley M. Tilghman: not just leaders for Africa, but the importance of leaders
Shirley M. Tilghman: to get us through these very, very stormy times.
[crowd noise]
Andrew McLaughlin: What social networks do very well, online
Andrew McLaughlin: social networks, is that they make weak ties easy.
Andrew McLaughlin: Since the fall of Mubarak, the national sound of Egypt is the
Andrew McLaughlin: sound of chairs being pulled together in a circle.
Andrew McLaughlin: The weak ties of the online social world are becoming
Andrew McLaughlin: stronger ties as people get to know each other face to face
Andrew McLaughlin: in real life.
Mbali Palisa Zondi: When I go back, I, too, want to make a difference.
Courage Matiza: I've just learned that I'm not alone.
Courage Matiza: There's a lot of people out there who are
Courage Matiza: waiting to help me.
Courage Matiza: I just need to ask them.
Olivia Iloetonma: To see it in myself, to stand up and take
Olivia Iloetonma: initiative and move forward --
Olivia Iloetonma: follow the road not taken, as Robert Frost would say --
Olivia Iloetonma: that's the thing I'll take
Olivia Iloetonma: out the most. Yep.
[singing]