| Profile: Lesley Sternberg & The Design School Southern Africa |
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Lesley Sternberg is the dynamic director of the Design School Southern Africa, one of the leading design education and training institutions in the country. Lesley founded The Design School in 1990 with a handful of students in Hatfield, Pretoria and has built it up to become an institution with several hundred students, a campus in Johannesburg as well as the original one in Pretoria, that are both nationally and internationally accredited, and that has an annual turnover in the millions.
 Lesley has always been involved in the arts and began her training in the dance field. She worked with set design, costume design, lighting design, and also studied Fashion Design and later, Interior Design. Lesley recognised that there was a need for a private college that could offer education and training across a number of different design disciplines, including Interior Design, Graphic Design, Fashion design, Photography and even Interior Decorating. This led to the establishment of the Design School Southern Africa in 1990, with the aim of offering quality education in touch with the needs of industry. From a budget of merely R30 000 and 6 students in the first year of operations, the Design School Southern Africa has expanded over 450 students at two fully equipped campuses, one in Hatfield, Pretoria and the other situated in Birnam, Johannesburg. Lesley has now worked in the design, and design education industry for more than 18 years and been involved in setting up of accredited curricula for the courses. She is also responsible for setting up the policy and procedure documentation for the Institution and ensuring quality assurance at the Institution. The Design School Southern Africa has been fully accredited by the Higher Education Quality Committee of the Council on Higher Education and is registered with the National Department of Education. The Design School furthermore has international accreditation from the London College of Arts in the United Kingdom and is an AutoDesk and Adobe accredited training centre. DSSA offers full time learning programmes leading towards the fully accredited Bachelor of Arts Degree in Interior Design, Bachelor of Arts Degree in Fashion Design, or Bachelor of Arts Degree in Graphic Design as well as towards a Diploma in Photography, and the (FET) Diploma in Interior Decorating. Lesley is passionate about everything that she does and this is evidenced in her involvement in not only design education but education and training as a whole. She was the Chairperson of the Association of Private Colleges of South Africa (APCSA) as well as being a member of the Management Board of the Association of Private Providers of Education, Training and Development (APPETD). As a representative of these bodies, Lesley regularly liases with the Department of Education, the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), the Council on Higher Education (CHE) and various Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETA's). Lesley's commitment to the arts has never waned and the Minister of Arts and Culture selected her to serve as a council member for two of the National Heritage Councils. She was elected as council member of the William Humphrey Museum in Kimberley where she served a three-year term. She served as a member of the acquisitions committee of WHAG. WHAG is one of the top rated National art galleries in South Africa. Lesley was also elected as a council member of the Northern Flagship Institution (NFI) and served a three-year term. She was elected onto the audit committee of the NFI as well. The Northern Flagship Institution is a grouping of National Museums and Gallery's consisting of the Cultural History Museum, The Transvaal Museum of Natural History, The Kruger Museum, The Sammy Marks Museum, The Tswaing Crater Museum, The Coert Steynberg Museum, The Pioneer Museum and the Military History Museum in Johannesburg. Lesley was on the origional Steering Committee of ZONTA, an international organisation dedicated to the upliftment of women and the girl child, and established the Pretoria branch in 1996. She was also the Chairperson of the Service Committee and a 2 year Director. Lesley attended the ZONTA International Conference in Paris. Lesley is also passionate about the moto - "every learner deserves to know". DSSA regularly visits schools and career exhibitions around the country, and gives presentations about the different careers in Art and Design, the types of personalities that will make good designers or artists, and where students can study various art or design courses. There is also a multimedia presentation so that the learners and teachers can see what some of the different design disciplines are and what kind of standards the industry requires. DSSA also holds workshops of art educators to assist them with some of the research requirements of the secondary education syllabus. DSSA holds regular exhibitions on its campuses, so that learners and the general public can view design work and ask questions about art and design as a career. DSSA also has a number of Open Days and Career Days throughout the year where students can find out more about being a designer and therefore make a more informed decision regarding their career path. DSSA also participates in a number of public exhibitions like the Perfect Life Expo, Rocking Future Road Show and the Inkanyezi Careers Training Expo. These exhibitions are visited by schools as part of their curriculum. DSSA awards a large number of bursaries for deserving students who have a matric qualification with art as a subject, but who do not have the financial resources to enrol in Higher Education. In addition, DSSA runs various bursary competitions throughout the year in conjunction with magazines like Designing Ways, Pursuit, House and Leisure, and SL. DSSA also gives an annual amount of 120 000.00 per year (R 60 000.00 each) in bursary's for the Pretoria News and Star Newspaper, annual Design an ad Competitions. Lesley Sternberg has been a judge of this competition since its inception, and will be the mediating judge from 2004. Present 2nd and 3rd year students can receive financial awards based on the excellence of their year end results i.e. R1000.00 off for each distinction achieved, and R4 500.00 for each top student. "Design students at the D.S.S.A regularly learn about designing real projects with real budgets for clients, with progress in mind. This is not the only direction the students should be developing in," says Lesley Sternberg. "They also need to realise just how much they can contribute to ALL sectors of the community." When Father Barry Hughes-Gibbs of KERUX commissioned The Design School to design and paint a mural at Kalafong Hospital for the Children's AIDS and Cancer Ward, the students jumped at the chance to contribute. Under the guidance of Lesley Sternberg and lecturer Runette Kruger, the students developed the idea of creating a wonderland of pictures for the children to explore while waiting to be seen by the medical staff. Lesley Sternberg and Errol Holloway (Graphic Design Lecturer) supervised the design students in designing and painting murals at the Mamelodi Police Station to brighten the police station and the holding cells. At the Masupatsela School for Children with special needs, murals were designed under the guidance of the DSSA staff and students painted the murals in the classroom. Lesley also participated in the Rally to Read Project, which delivers reading and teaching material to seriously under-resourced rural schools. The students at DSSA are encouraged to collect newspaper supplements and magazines for resource materials for deliver to these schools. Lesley and The Design School have also been involved with other social upliftment projects and sponsorships as with the Luvuyo Orphanage (2005/2006) DSSA has been closely involved with Luvoyo Orphanage in Shoshanguve ensuring adequate nutrition reaches the children on a regular basis. R2 000.00 worth of food is delivered each month, ensuring a regular supply of fresh meat, fruit and vegetables. Fund raising drives have already garnered R15 000.00 from the Australian High Commission, R15 000.00 from the Union of Jewish Women and R18 000.00 from the European Union. This money has been used to purchase beds and linen for the children, who now sleep in their own beds for the first time in their lives. Additional funds have been allocated from the above amounts for medical care for the students and any funds left over will be allocated to education for the children. By the end of 2006 Luvoyo had also received R120 000.00 from other donors and so became self sustaining. Lesley Sternberg, Director of DSSA was invited to one of the fundraising concerts in August 2006 and was immediately taken with the potential of this amazing group. Via the Fashion Design Department of DSSA, she arranged for ten new formal black tie outfits to be made for the group, and strategized with their manager - George Pretorius - on the best ways of promoting and funding this group. One of the first functions the group presented their new outfits, was DSSA graduation ceremony in November 2006, where they performed for more than 350 guests at the St Georges Hotel. Their performance drew other guests at the venue to listen to the now polished and professional voices effortlessly singing opera in such a magical way. This has lead to other performance bookings for the group. Regular parcels of clothing, linen and other gifts have also been supplied during this period. In 2007 the graphic design students designed a new corporate identity for the group to use in their promotion and communication. Over December/ January 2007/8 the group performed 16 times at Gold Reef City and have been booked for weekend performances at the Palace from February to end May 2008. A Christmas Gift of shopping vouchers for the group (donated by Mrs L Sternberg and Miss V Sternberg) enabled the group to buy Christmas presents for their families as well as new shoes for their performance outfits. They were also given new suits for the four tenors and new dresses for the sopranos were supplied to the group by DSSA. DSSA has to date donated about 5 - 6 different outfits for their performances. Marinella Avvakoumides  Marinella is the HoD of the Fashion Design and marketing department at the Design School Southern Africa. She holds a B Tech Degree in Fashion Design and was awarded top student in her third year as well as top student for her fourth year which she completed cum laude. Marinella has been teaching at DSSA since 2004 and continues to run the department to this day. 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