Kate Kraft

Kate teaches A-Level African History, African Studies: Politics & Governance, and SAT Math at ALA. She has also tutored IGCSE French and created an extra-curricular course called Introduction to Music Theory.  

Kate is extremely passionate about music and the promotion of the arts at ALA. To this end, she has dedicated her time at the Academy to the promotion of ALA’s music program. As a part of this goal, she acts as the faculty advisor to “Alapella,” the school choir, as well as most other music groups on campus. Kate’s belief in the power of music to create positive change encourages the young leaders on campus to use their musical gifts to inspire the continent. Kate organized the donation of musical instruments to ALA and created the ALA Music Room and Music Library. Kate is working on creating an album of ALA Music, featuring traditional instruments from all over the continent playing original pieces written by students, as well as other types of musical expression.

In addition to promoting musical expression, Kate is on the ALA Health Team, the Seminal Readings Committee, and the Residential Life team. In this capacity, Kate runs one of the girls’ halls on campus. As a member of the African Studies department, Kate also coordinates “This Week in Africa” for school assemblies. This is a program that promotes knowledge of diverse cultures around the continent and ensures that the young leaders in Johannesburg remain connected to their home communities.

Kate plays ultimate Frisbee with the ALA team, notably as MVP and Best Female Defensive player at last year’s South African Nationals, and is an assistant coach of Girls’ Volleyball. Altogether, Kate is an active part of all ALA campus life and her energy and passion for Africa come through in everything in which she is involved.

Kate graduated cum laude from Yale University in May 2010 with a B.A. in history with honors. She also studied French, Spanish, and Swahili. Kate was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and lived there and in Paris, France before moving to Los Angeles, California, where she attended La Canada High School before going to Yale. Kate plays trumpet, trombone, euphonium, carillon, timpani, marching snare/bass/quads/cymbals, bass guitar, drum set, and dabbles in acoustic guitar. She was the Drum Major and Conductor of the Yale Precision Marching Band and played timpani, euphonium, and trombone in the Yale Concert Band, which she conducted for its final academic year 2010 concert.

While at Yale, she performed with Ezra Stiles College Wind Ensemble, Davenport Pops Orchestra, Saybrook College Orchestra, among others, was a member of the Yale Political Union and Yale ACLU, and founded a political civil rights advocacy group in her final year.  Kate is passionate about politics and spends much of her time when home in Los Angeles canvassing for political campaigns. She spent the break after her first year at ALA traveling the US and doing research in Zanzibar on traditional Swahili music. She was trained by San Francisco’s Common Sense Media in their Digital Citizenship Curriculum and is actively working to integrate it into ALA’s curricula.