Unisa online - Reaching the leaders of tomorrow through innovative youth resear

From left: Antoinette Basson (Youth Research Unit), Goodness Zulu (Youth Research Unit), Isa van Aardt (back) (Youth Research Unit), Anne van Zyl (back) (Head, Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls), Happy Seshoka (Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls), Madeleine Victor-Zietsman (Department of Criminology), Gloria Da Costa (Department of Criminology)

The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls is located in a quiet settlement, Henley-on-Klip, close to Meyerton. It is a dream for many South African girls to become part of this esteemed academy, which provides young South African girls with the opportunity to overcome their challenging circumstances and become future leaders.

During March 2012, the Youth Research Unit (YRU) of the Bureau of Market Research (BMR) of the College of Economic and Management Sciences (CEMS) was honoured to obtain permission to include students from the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in the “YRU School Research and Community Engagement Project”. The vision of the YRU is to create positive change within South African society by conducting scientific research and engaging with the youth.

The YRU School Research and Community Engagement Project is representative of the vision of the YRU. The project includes secondary school learners in Gauteng and deals with three pertinent youth themes: the effect of cellphones on lifestyle, drug and alcohol use, and school violence with a specific a focus on bullying.  A total of 273 girls, from Grades 8 to 12 from the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, participated in the research project.

Learners from the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls

Apart from generating research information, the YRU project strives to empower the youth through creating awareness and sharing information. In partnership with the Department of Criminology from the College of Law at Unisa, a presentation dealing with bullying and cyber-bullying in schools was presented to the participating students at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. The presentation focused on the concept of bullying, types of bullying, legal responses to bullying, the consequences of bullying, and safety tips for children and schools.

The YRU is proud of its achievements through the research project, but most importantly, gratified to be able to touch the lives of many young South Africans through research. To quote Oprah Winfrey: “When you’re changing a girl’s life, it’s not just that life. You start to affect a family, a community, a nation.”

For more information on the research project, contact Prof Deon Tustin, Executive Director: BMR (tustidh@unisa.ac.za).