Washington, DC – In an effort to fund and support higher education opportunities for disadvantaged youth in an African community, one South African high school student was awarded a full scholarship for high school and college, announced ThinkImpact today.

Ncane Mabuza, currently in Grade 10 at Manyangana High School in Manyeleti, South Africa, was awarded the Mundzuku Scholarship, set up by two ThinkImpact Global Development Fellows. Mabuza won the scholarship based on an application process using marks, teacher evaluations, and personal statements. The scholarship is a joint project between ThinkImpact (formerly Student Movement for Real Change), Make A Difference (MAD) Foundation, and the Buffleshoek Trust.

Julie Walz and David Lamb, both former Georgetown students, returned to Manyeleti for 3 months in 2009 as Global Development Fellows, a program sponsored by ThinkImpact, an international non-profit that connects American college students and recent graduates with villages in South Africa and Kenya. Relying on business principles, ThinkImpact Fellows facilitate health and education initiatives by leveraging community resources and harnessing the energy and ingenuity of local community leaders.

In addition to creating the scholarship, fundraising, and identifying potential partners and award recipients, the Fellows mobilized women in three South African communities to form a selection committee. While in South Africa, Julie and David raised $15,000 for the Mundzuku Scholarship, an amount that was matched more than three times by the Buffelshoek Trust and Make A Difference (MAD) Foundation.

“On behalf of ThinkImpact, I wish Ncane Mabuza, the first recipient of the Mundzuku Scholarship, my congratulations and well wishes for her education,” says Saul Garlick, executive director of ThinkImpact. “Through a new kind of development based on social entrepreneurship, ThinkImpact Fellows like Julie and David are creating sustainable projects that will contribute to the success of community members, and thereby the success of an entire rural African Village. It is so gratifying to see this scholarship program take off.”