Mastercard Foundation Summer School 2019
How transformative leaders can bring new ideas and fresh thinking to Edinburgh communities.
The Mastercard Foundation Summer School creates positive change for more than just the students who take part each year. The program’s focus is transformative leadership and each year it teaches a talented group of young students how to inspire and motivate others. The students work in teams with a group of Community Partners, organisations in the Edinburgh area who open their doors in the hope of identifying and resolving problems within the local community. The collaboration lasts 4 weeks but the solutions put forward can bring powerful positive change for both the partners and the local community long after the final presentations end.
We want our Scholars to engage in the city that they live in. Our Community Partners and the community projects are a way of forming quite a deep connection with the city and also with the problems the city is facing.
Supporters of the Summer School this year included organisations helping to feed people in poverty, enterprises encouraging families to explore how meditation can positively impact their lifestyles and socially conscious businesses showing how a small change in purchasing habits and a gradual shift towards a zero-waste lifestyle can bring immediate benefits to people in need.
We were initially quite blown away by the way that the students had engaged with Edinburgh City Mission. They had done their research and their homework to find out who we are and what we do, and why we do it. In a very short period of time they grasped the breadth and the difficulty of meeting the needs of people who use our services.
We interviewed Pete Kingsley and Johanna Holtan of the Mastercard Foundation and two of this year’s Community partners to find out how collaborating with the Summer School students gives them new insights on working towards their community focussed goals while giving students a very real opportunity to test their new-found skills in transformative leadership, creative thinking and problem solving.
Organisations interested in working with the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program as part of the Summer School can find out more on the Summer School website:
Visit the Summer School website
If you would like to know more about Wee Seeds or Edinburgh City Mission visit their websites:
Visit the Edinburgh City Mission website