With the generous contributions of institutional and individual donors from South Africa and the US, SSP gives five-year high school scholarships to academically distinguished Scholars from financially disadvantaged backgrounds. SSP Scholars are carefully selected following our competitive recruitment process that begins when they are in Grade 6, based on academic excellence, emotional intelligence, financial need and leadership potential. Successful candidates are then placed at our Partner Schools when they are in Grade 8.
SSP’s commitment to our Scholars is financial, however, we go far beyond this by providing a suite of services to our Scholars, including psycho-social support, and providing for their personal development needs. We do this through SSP Scholar Programme Officers (SPOs), who monitor the academic progress of the Scholar, as well as their psycho-social well-being. We also have the SSP Mentorship Programme, where each student is paired with a Mentor, who is typically a successful professional. The Mentor provides additional guidance throughout the mentee’s high school career. When this relationship is properly nurtured, mutually-rewarding friendships that have lasted well beyond the Scholar’s high school career, have emerged from this programme.
The final component of the SSP model is leadership development. SSP’s vision is to develop “Leaders for South Africa” who are committed to the creation of a non-racist, non-sexist, democratic, united and prosperous South Africa as articulated in the South African Constitution. Our hope is that once our Scholars become Alumni, they will remain committed to public service, and become people of influence and leaders in their respective careers.
For almost two decades, our Scholars have flourished and overcome their disadvantaged backgrounds,. Nearly all SSP Scholars matriculate with multiple distinctions, and attend or have attended a variety of esteemed tertiary institutions in South Africa, the US, and the UK.