Meghan Markle Gave a Powerful Speech About Gender Equality at the University of Johannesburg

Thank you so much for having me. I’m really so excited to be here, obviously as patron of the ACU. It’s been an incredible almost a year now, a year of really working to advocate for what is truly important and deeply meaningful to me on a personal level. Education, I think higher education specifically is such a key element of growth, economic growth as well as personal growth and development. Yesterday, I had a really interesting conversation with someone about the economy of well being and so I think so much of what we should be talking about and energies we focus on with ACU is supporting people to know that if you don’t have the support that is necessary, that you feel you can keep taking the next step then you’re stunted in growth, right? And so so much of that is having the support and scholarships and funding for students who are eager to learn. I mean, I went to university. Takes a village, doesn’t it? To sort of piece it together for people, to be able to finance that with families chipping in, scholarships, financial aid, all of those things are the reason I was able to attend university. But at the same level, you need to have that kind of support on the inside for educators to be able to give as much as they can back to those that are in the educational system. So I’m very excited today—and I will use a notecard for this because my goodness, it’s the last bit I can’t screw up—I’m very, very happy that we’re able to announce today three new gender grants. This is key obviously they’re going to be in universities that are here: University of Johannesburg, Stellenbosch University, and University of Western Cape. And the goal here is to be able to have gender equality to be able to support women as they are working in research and higher education goals and also to be able to have workshops to convene things that are really helping people understand the importance of gender equality. True to what you said, when a woman is empowered, it changes absolutely everything in the community and starting an educational atmosphere is really a key point of that. Separately we are announcing four new Queen Elizabeth Commonwealth Scholarships, which is very exciting. Students from Tanzania, Zambia, and Nigeria have been selected to study in South Africa next year, and I think what is so special about this and part of what’s incredible about the Commonwealth in and of itself is 53 countries, all so varied with this Commonwealth right, with this universality that connects all of it. And so with students being able to study in a cross cultural environment. Not only are they able to absorb the knowledge in that community but they’re able to bring that back home with them to really elevate that knowledge so it’s a really exciting day. I’m thrilled that you know, given the context of what’s been happening in South African universities which I’ve been also following very closely, that we are able to do our small part through the ACU to support so many people who are just eager to learn. And the only way we can make a difference in the world is if we’re receptive to learning and sharing that information as we have it so thank you so much for having me today.