Education is a luxury for many of Indonesia’s 230 million people. Each year 1.5 million young people are unable to continue their education due to financial difficulties, and only 18 percent of those who graduate from high school have the means to pursue higher education, according to the Ministry of Education. The education sector also is critically under-funded: just 17.5 percent of the state budget is set aside for education, significantly less than in neighboring countries, according to UNESCO.

As Indonesia's first social business institution, the Putera Sampoerna Foundation has been well-equipped to tackle these challenges since its inception. One of the foundation’s Four Pillars is a commitment to education and leadership. The Sampoerna Academy serves the Foundation’s core mission of creating future leaders by providing bright students from disadvantaged backgrounds an international standard secondary education in preparation for a university education. Students selected to attend Sampoerna Academy must have demonstrated a commitment to leadership, community service and environmental awareness in addition to academic success in junior high school. Sampoerna Academy combined the national curriculum with an international curriculum based on the standard of the University of Cambridge International Examinations.

The first two academies, in Malang, East Java, and Palembang, South Sumatra, opened in 2009. Two other academies, in Bali and Bogor, have just been launched in 2011.