Shawn Phelps, B.A. (Journalism)

Shawn is the president and co-founder of Jai Dee Children's Fund. She is also a trainer, speaker and writer. Her previous positions include Senior Editor at Financial Post Business, Editor at Canada's largest human resources magazine, and Instructor in Centennial College's prestigious Book + Magazine Publishing program. She manages all areas of the charity, with a lot of help from Thanou and the organization's many volunteers.

Shawn first became interested in helping children through education after spending six months working for the Canada South Africa Education Management Fund (CSAEMP), studying educational best practices and train-the-trainer approaches in both Western Quebec and Bloemfontein South Africa. This desire was deepened after a seven-month trip through Asia working on a book project, where she saw many children in need. She has travelled to over 20 countries, and keeps photos of the children she met on these journeys on her desk to inspire her--both to live life to the fullest, and to work hard to create a better world for them.
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Inspired by Great Leaders

By Shawn Phelps

I've been inspired by a number of teachers and leaders over the years. Here are the stories of two who had a direct impact on my life by showing me that the key to any success anywhere is leadership.

Peter K. Macleod, Alymer, Quebec, Canada
The first was Peter, then a teacher at Philomen Wright High School in Alymer, Quebec. I was a fly on the wall in his classroom for many weeks, and I learned more about geography--and teaching--in that time, then I ever did in high school with my own less than stellar teacher (who once locked a student in a closet as punishment and failed me without any advance notice).

Peter created unique projects to engage students and started lunch and after school programs in his class using computers and software he had convinced companies to donate. He treated his students as capable human beings, even the ones that other teachers had given up on long ago, and it paid off. They began to learn. He won a Governor General's award for his work, but he said the real payoff was that everywhere he went past students called out to him just to say hello, sometimes telling him how he had changed their life. He showed me the power of what a good teacher and leader can do.

Khoarai J. Khoarai, Mangaung, Free State, South Africa
The second was Khoarai, nicknamed British by those close to him, though I never learned exactly why. He was the principal of a very successful township high school--notable since most township high schools were a mess thanks to the aftershocks of Apartheid. My job was to follow British around for three months in order to figure out what he was doing right so it could be replicated in other schools.

It didn't take long for me to see that the school's success was not so much about processes (though it had those in place) as it was about leadership. At least once a week, British delivered rousing speeches to all 1,400 students on the power of wisdom and why they needed to groom themselves to become the leaders of tomorrow. He knew many of the students personally, along with their parents, and made a point of engaging all in the education process. He travelled around to other schools--dangerous schools where the teachers were sometimes drunk and students fought with knives-- to hold assembly and tell the students why they should fight for an education, why they should demand to be educated and work hard to build a strong future. And they would listen, because he grew up living in a shack, just like they did. He understood and believed in them--and no one had done that before. They wanted to learn, but no one had given them a real chance to do so. Many teachers at their schools showed up only when they felt like it, and sometimes they were drunk or slept with female students.

British grew up on a farm, the fourth of nine children. His parents were labourers, which, in South Africa, meant they were basically slaves. This was during the Apartheid years. The farm owner refused to let him attend school full time, but he snuck out and went anyway. He got caught, but before the farmer could beat him, he ran away and never went back.

He became a teacher, then a principal, starting his own school in a shack with no chairs or tables with students other schools had rejected. During the Apartheid years, he risked his life time and again to keep the school open. He knew that education was the key to a better future for South Africa.

When I first met British, his school had already grown from a shack into a large brick building. It was turning out disciplined, intelligent, independent thinkers who were going on to become leaders. To me, he was the Nelson Mandela of education, a person who led by example. He never drank or smoked or wasted time. He volunteered for charity boards and ran a soccer team for young men, to give them something to do and get them out of the township. Spending time with this man and his family changed me. British showed me that there was so much more to life than I had ever realized, and that by sitting on the sidelines I was missing out on much of it.

The Outcome
I have a deep belief that what we become is a direct result of the people we connect with over our lifetime. Meeting these two men changed me. They showed me what was possible. Before I met them I had not really believed that one person could make a difference, or even that anyone could make a difference. Now I know that one person can definitely make a difference. And if you can bring together a few people who feel passionate about helping others you can really make things happen. It also made me realize the importance of teachers, leaders and heroes in all of our lives. If we all just connected and were inspired by a few good ones, imagine what the world would be like?

Anyway, what I learned in 2005, at the age of 35, is that there will never be a day when you wake up and feel ready to do the thing that scares you. As long as it's calling you, you have to just get started and see what happens. As long as you are focused on helping others while also enjoying yourself, truly amazing things can take place.