The ALA Quad

Hello ALaians! Check out our recent Sankofa visitor, Miranda Nyathi (ALA ’08). It was incredible having her back on campus and reconnecting with the community. We’re excited to welcome even more alumni this June as we celebrate graduation festivities together! 🎓💙

Happy Monday, ALAians! Did you know you can use the Alumni Engagement App to discover who’s in your country or even your city? Join our groups today and connect with fellow ALAians near you!

DM us if you have any trouble logging into the app.

😉

Hi ALAians, check this out 👀 our alums sure do know how to show up and show out!

Centre College 🤝 Berea College — ALA alums reunited at the African Students Association banquet at Berea.

CentreCollege

Daraja 2026 is coming up, and we’d love to invite you to play a role in preparing the Class of 2024, your Year 1s, for life after ALA.
 
This year’s theme, Thriving Where You Are, is all about helping the graduating class feel confident in their ability to succeed next year and beyond - whether they choose to take a gap year or head straight to university. As alumni already navigating life beyond ALA, your voice and experience can powerfully reinforce this message.
 
There are two ways you can get involved:

• Share your story: Send us a video (no longer than 2 minutes) sharing what “thriving where you are” means to you. Please send your video to the AE number.

• Join the conversation: Be part of our panel discussion on the evening of June 10, either virtually or in person if you’ll be in Joburg.

If you’re available to join us, we’d love to hear from you.

Hello ALAians

We’re back with another My Story Unplugged 🎤 and you won’t want to miss this one!
Join us as Joyce Murairi takes the virtual stage to share her journey, the lessons she’s learning, and how her story continues to unfold.

🗓 Friday, May 8
⏰ 5PM SAST

This promises to be a powerful, engaging session and it’s not just about listening. Come through, reflect, and even share your own story with the community. Your journey matters too. 💛

RSVP to attend, and don’t forget to sign up if you’d like to moderate or be featured in a future session!

See you on Zoom.

Link to RSVP in the description.

❤️

ALAians, we’re live on YouTube! 🎥

We’re so excited to officially launch the Alumni Engagement YouTube channel  a new digital home for our community and all the incredible stories we share.

This space will house all our favourite virtual projects, including My Story Unplugged, and so much more to come.

We’re kicking things off with our most recent Alumni My Story recordings, a powerful reminder of the journeys, voices, and impact within our community.    
                                                                  
👉🏽 Make sure you subscribe, follow along, and enjoy the content
👉🏽 We’ve got a lot planned for this channel…
and trust us, you don’t want to miss it

Let’s keep telling our stories, together 💛

Community Leadership AfricanYouth YouTubeLaunch VoicesOfAfrica

Alumni Engagement App Launched
 
The Alumni Engagement App is officially live, and it’s been incredible to see many of you already joining, connecting, and exploring all it has to offer.

As we worked on a few final improvements, we experienced a slight delay in onboarding the Classes of 2009, 2010, 2021, and 2022. The good news, we’re now back on track! If you’re part of one of these classes, your contacts have been loaded, and you can now activate your account. Keep an eye on your inbox, log in, and start engaging with your community.

We can’t wait to see you on there. DM

If you haven’t received your login details, your email address may need to be updated. Please DM us for the link to complete the form, update your information, and we’ll resend your login details.

Tress Alchemy by Portia Kuivi (ALA ‘14)

Behind the Brand is a new series celebrating the bold alumni entrepreneurs in our community, from emerging founders to established trailblazers.

To kick things off, we’re spotlighting Portia Kuivi (ALA Class of 2014) and her journey founding Tress Alchemy.

Tress Alchemy is a brand creating durable, modular loc jewellery designed specifically for African-textured locs.

Blending modern, contemporary design with cultural storytelling, Tress Alchemy crafts lightweight, tarnish-resistant pieces using 14-karat gold and 925 sterling silver. Each design is intentionally engineered to be comfortable, secure, and loc-friendly, while every collection draws inspiration from Ewe symbols of Ghana, celebrating and preserving Portia’s cultural heritage.

What began as a personal journey to reconnect with her own locs has grown into a mission to fill a long-overlooked gap in the market — and reimagine how loc’d women experience hair adornment.
Tress Alchemy is currently pre-launch — follow along at .tressalchemy as Portia builds something that transcends beauty.