Dartmouth-South Africa Summer Program
Program Dates: July 11 – August 4, 2025
*Application Deadline: January 15, 2025*
Dartmouth College* (7 Days):
Teamwork · Confidence-Building · Education · Leadership · Campus Life · Fun
The orientation week at Dartmouth provides an intellectually and culturally invigorating environment in which to develop relationships with the other members of the team. Students also begin to learn about South Africa — and about college life.
Private seminars with Dartmouth professors on journaling, creative writing, and South African history and culture will help students get the most out of their experience abroad. Throughout the program, students will keep a journal to enable them to record new experiences and reflect on what they have learned.
In simple and elaborate group-problem-solving exercises at the Dartmouth ropes course, students learn how to establish trust, strengthen the group, and use communication skills important in a foreign country.
This week’s seminars and workshops also deal with how to navigate the college-admissions process, how to speak in public, and, most importantly, how to be a leader.
And there’s the enjoyment of Dartmouth’s Summer Session in a dorm on one of America’s most beautiful and historic college campuses — the college experience at its best.
Orientation in South Africa (4 Days):
Discovery · Culture · History · Tradition
Students stay in a beautiful guesthouse on an orange farm owned by an Afrikaans family who runs the primary school. The purpose of this three-day orientation is to help reduce culture shock by familiarizing students with their new surroundings, and by learning more about the many challenges people face in rural South Africa. The group will also volunteer at a local orphanage, take the Panoramic Route day trip, and most importantly, get to know our South African partners that will work with us throughout the trip.
At the farm, students will also get to learn more about South African culture by taking traditional cooking lessons, practice traditional songs and dances, and make African crafts. Finally, we will prepare lessons plans for classroom teaching and get our soccer practices ready for the community service week at the end of the program.
Wildlife Monitoring and Safari (8 Days):
Wildlife Observation · Conservation · Research · Survival Skills · Communal Living
Ivy Leader students stay at a research camp with modern facilities on a 65,000-acre game reserve in the shadow of the stunning Drakensberg Mountains in the northeastern province of Limpopo. Our students act as biologists and help in research projects by monitoring, tracking, and gathering data on big-game animals such as buffalo, elephants, leopards, lions, and rhino. Under the guidance of qualified rangers, students riding in Land Rovers and on-foot observe a variety of wildlife, learning about their movements, feeding patterns, and reproductive behavior. Interactions between predators and prey are observed and discussed. Rangers teach students how to orienteer and use trees and plants to survive in the wilderness. During this segment of the program, Ivy Leader students also work with children at a local orphanage and go on a day hike in the mountains.
Learning to live communally is an important part of the Ivy Leader experience. Students are taught basic cooking skills and prepare food for themselves and others — while handling other responsibilities involved with group living.
Service Work at a Primary School (8 Days):
Learning · Teaching · Serving · Sports · Culture · Diversity · Humility
Our students help teachers at the Lighthouse Academy prepare and conduct classes in science, math, and geography; help children with their homework; and sing, dance, and read stories with the younger children. We also partner with local coaches to organize and take part in community soccer practices and matches.
More information:
Questions? Frequently asked questions can be found here.
$ Program Tuition can be found here.
Video:
[*Dartmouth College is not a sponsor of co-sponsor of this program. Ivy Leader is not affiliated with, or approved by, The Ivy League or its member universities.]
