The time has come for young leaders, academics, and entrepreneurs to bring about social change. The subject for this year’s 2016 Bright Young Minds (BYM) summit was Shaping the Future Now.
Art History and Image Studies Master’s student, Candice Thikeson, of the University of the Free State was one of those attending the summit.
Young leaders in Africa can bring social change
“We should not think of social change as the responsibility of politicians, but that young people in Africa are the leaders who can bring about the social change we want in the fields we are in,” Candice said. After being selected as a Mandela Rhodes Scholar for 2016, she pursued her next big goal, the BYM Summit. The BYM Summit took place from 22-26 June 2016 in Johannesburg, and was directed at social involvement and innovation.
Access to resources plan presented to government
This year, for the first time ever, delegates were asked to identify a particular social issue, and come up with a solution to the social problem they identified with it.
Candice and her team were committed to solving a problem concerning access to resources in barclaysafrica high schools. “We presented the idea of a shared economy of education to Barclays Africa, and were awarded 2nd place for our idea. On 14 July, our team presented this idea to government officials with the help of Barclay’s staff,” she said.