In March 2025, Team4Tech brought eight skilled volunteers from Salesforce to support LEAP Science and Maths Schools on-site in South Africa.
Driving STEM Education for South African Students
The South African education system faces stark challenges, with only one in every hundred children who begin Grade 1 ultimately graduating. This statistic is even more disheartening in the townships, where students not only confront economic hardship but are often impacted by high levels of domestic violence, with two-thirds of township students affected. During apartheid, black South Africans were denied access to critical subjects like Math and Science, creating long-standing gaps in education and opportunity.
Founded in 1990, LEAP Science and Maths Schools (LEAP) have become a beacon of hope and transformation, providing high-quality, low-fee education to over 1,500 secondary students in under-resourced South African townships. Since 2014, LEAP has partnered with Team4Tech to equip students with the skills and resources necessary to thrive in STEM fields. Together, they have worked to increase the schools’ impact, integrating technology into the classroom through computer labs and teacher training initiatives, expanding learning opportunities for students, and closing gaps in digital literacy and access.
Building on Past Skills-Based Volunteering Work
In March 2025, eight skilled volunteers from Salesforce participated in an on-site Team4Tech project to support LEAP in South Africa, specifically, LEAP 7 in Paarl. This marks the third collaborative project between Salesforce, LEAP, and Team4Tech in the past two years. Team4Tech and Salesforce collaborated in April 2024 to improve educational systems and train teachers, and we reconvened in August 2024 to build a new tech environment and lead digital literacy trainings. When LEAP 7 was first launched in January 2024, it was little more than a shell of a school, lacking computers, internet access, and even stable electricity. Thanks to a Team4Tech grant and the commitment of past Salesforce volunteers, LEAP was able to set up its very first computer lab by mid-2024, outfitting it with 30 laptops. That first year was marked by cautious exploration, as both students and teachers familiarized themselves with new digital tools like Google Workspace and Google Classroom.
Fast forward to 2025, and the transformation has been nothing short of inspiring. Students now navigate digital platforms with confidence, and teachers actively integrate technology into daily instruction. The goal of this most recent project was to elevate that foundation and empower students through deeper engagement with technology.
Upleveling Digital Skills, Launching New Opportunities, Mentoring Students
Salesforce volunteers worked tirelessly to train students in electronics, basic coding, and robotics, meeting them at their individual levels of interest and ability. The lab became a hive of activity, with eager students lining up between sessions. By the end of the week, LEAP 7 had officially launched its first student-led robotics club, with six founding members. One Salesforce volunteer even donated sets of robotics equipment, which sparked immense curiosity and creativity among the learners.
Beyond the tech sessions, the volunteers also joined daily Life Orientation classes, an important space where students and volunteers gathered in a circle to discuss topics like leadership, self-awareness, career exploration, and conflict de-escalation. These mentorship moments quickly became a highlight for both the students and the volunteers.
Volunteers also led engaging classroom sessions on topics such as Entrepreneurship 101, where students explored budgeting and cost analysis, and Design Thinking, which introduced learners and teachers alike to a human-centered approach to project-based learning.
And of course, the week wasn’t all work and no play. Volunteers and Students exchanged dance moves from their various cultures, and the Salesforce team tried their best to keep up during high-energy basketball and netball games.
A Rewarding Skills-Based Volunteering Experience
I never could have imagined how incredible this experience would be. From day one, we all came together as one team, combining our different strengths to teach together with Nyagaki Gichia and try to meet the expectations of the amazing kids at LEAP 7 school, who were fortunate enough to cross our paths.
The kids taught and gave us far more than we could ever teach them. Whether it was during a design thinking session, introducing them to AI or robotics through our Arduino microprocessor class, or discussing school and life challenges in a Life Orientation session, they were always attentive, engaged, and eager to learn. Their big eyes and smiles showed their curiosity, as they shared their own experiences, amazed us with their insightful questions and answers, and brought laughter to every moment. It was a truly emotional experience, and we all found ourselves shedding tears when it came to an end.”
—Jorge Gonzalez de Chaves Alvarez, Customer Intelligence Director, Data Scientist at Salesforce
This strategic pro bono project is just one example of Team4Tech’s suite of skills-based volunteering opportunities that support nonprofit organizations all over the world. Explore other elements of our accelerator model.