Claire has a great passion for working with youth to realize their study abroad dreams.

Before joining the Global Youth Advisors, she rebuilt the EducationUSA program at the U.S. Mission in South Africa after a period of dormancy in Johannesburg and Pretoria to one that had gained recognition in working with both financially needy and non-needy, high achieving students.

Most notably, the Fall 2015 cohort of 20 students who were awarded over $1 Million, in financial aid, for their first year of study. She worked directly for the U.S. mission from 2012 to 2018, before moving to Gqeberha, formerly Port Elizabeth.

Claire has a Bachelor’s in International Business from Ramapo College of New Jersey with concentrations in Global Studies and Management.  She is a Dual-National of the U.S. and South Africa.

Since 2019, Claire has managed the EducationUSA Opportunity Fund Program through a cooperative agreement between the U.S. Mission and Protea Owl Foundation, an NPO aimed to assist youth with access to higher education. In addition, in 2021, Claire joined the network of Global Youth Advisors to help advise more South Africans about study and exchange opportunities abroad.

“Simple exchanges can break walls down between us, for when people come together and speak to one another and share a common experience, then their common humanity is revealed.”
– Barack Obama

Mauricia is the CEO of Data Works Communications (DWC), a consultancy enterprise in the Education sector.

She usesher background in Communication, Gender Studies and Psychology to develop life enhancing programs for marginalizedcommunities through various ICT solutions.

DWC is a proud Global Youth and EducationUSA advising centre supportingyouth and young professionals to study and work in the United States of America. As a focused CSI inniative, DWCaddresses the UN-SDG 5 namely gender equality by elevating the voices of african women and girl youths in technologythrough its subsidiary NPO, the ElevateHER Africa Network.

My name is Ouma Mpela. I have over 20 years’ experience in International higher education, working with American Students in South Africa, as a Resident Director.

My strengths are in building solid and lasting relationships. I consider myself a student of life and love traveling to new places, from time to time.

I am a mother of four beautiful children.

42 year old South African who hails from Cape Town. Married and father of 4 loves outdoors and nature(Camping and Hiking) and enjoys a weekly game of squash.

Graduating with an undergrad Degree in Architecture in 2003 soon realised that his passion for design was a much smaller than houses and buildings and did some work in research and development in furniture design and manufacturing, retail fittings and shop fitting.

After a motorcycle accident in 2011 which meant that he was on crutches for 8 weeks started a journey that would change his purpose in the years to come. The accident meant that he had to turn his skill to business and tried his entrepreneurial skills in property management and building and events.

It was in this time that his volunteering career started With the School Governing Body of his kids school, to being a local scout leader, to serving on the family trust which was born out of the apartheid injustice. Through this establishing scout groups at various underprivileged schools in the Western Cape and eventually led to creating an opportunity to get 14 young people to work at summer camps in 2019.

His training and learning continued within Scouts and other opportunities that allowed him the opportunity to easily learn and communicate with diverse communities. It was after an introduction to NLP and later Business Practitioner Training  with industry leaders like Sue Knight and Gene Early that really began to unlock the untapped potential of understanding how to motivate younger persons more so from underprivileged circumstances.

It was at this time that the partnership with Education USA and CIEE was forged and together with Awesome Travel based in South Africa this young man seeks to change the pathways of many young persons from all backgrounds and all cultures to help shape a South Africa of Tomorrow.

Paseka is a final-year Bachelor of Commerce in Law student at the University of Pretoria in South Africa.

He is the Founding Executive of The Street Store@UP, a programme that assist students in need with necessities such as food, toiletries and clothing.

He was selected as one of the three South Africans to participate in the 2020 Study of the U.S Institute (SUSI) for Global Student Leaders on Civic Engagement in United States of America for 6 weeks. He was recently selected as one of the Top 40 students by the Talloires Network of Engaged University and attended the Next Generation Leaders Conference co-hosted by Tufts University and Harvard University.

As an entrepreneur, he believes that young people should become active and engaged citizens and start businesses that create employment to grow the economy of this country.

Sbukeli has over seven years in the financial industry, first working as an Auditor for  four years where his job entailed auditing private companies in various sectors and thereafter  founded his own company Personal and Business Wealth Solutions, a company he established  as a Financial Planner with the desire to assist South Africans gain financial literacy and financial freedom.

2019 he was selected as a Young African Leader with the Mandela Washington Fellowship for  Young African Leaders under a Leadership in Business Program for 2019 in the United States  amongst 700 Africans from 38 000 applicants across the continent, where he spent 8 weeks at  Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois learning about business and economic development.

He is passionate about people, education and business.

“Don’t ask what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
– JF Kennedy

My name is Peter, a Co-founder of an ICT Company, RedStudio.

I’m a very enthusiastic person, a person who believes in pure hard-work, perseverance and continuous diligence as the necessities for personal growth.

I’m a huge fan of solving problems, with that said I have a great interest in entrepreneurship as a notable solution to most of our African problems.

Letlhogonolo is a Global Youth Adviser who believes in the power of empowering young people.

He began the journey in this field by applying and participating in different submission engagements with different stakeholders of the program, and now dreams of young under-graduates and graduates are becoming a reality.

His biggest accomplishment to date is being selected to be a youth adviser in this prestige program to advance, encourage and inspire confidence in the livelihoods of the young.

Currently residing in Bloemfontein, Free State, and participating a lot in computer programming games and/or activities.

My name is Shanelle and I am a Global Youth Advisor in Durban, South Africa.

Before becoming an advisor I studied Hospitality Management, where I also trained and worked at a few hotels locally.

My best and most enjoyable part of my journey thus far was my 2 international internships on the J1 program in Michigan and New York. I loved every second of both of my programmes and would recommend it to anybody who wants to do this programe.

Having first hand experience I hope to be able to help you get the same experience I did and to help you through this process.