Dear alumni

Do you tear up when you see someone else crying, even it that someone else is a fictional character on a TV screen?

If your answer is yes, you probably have a high level of empathy. But what exactly is empathy? The Cambridge dictionary says it is the ability to share someone else's feelings or experiences by imagining what it would be like to be in that person's situation.

When reading the article about Leoni van der Vaart’s PhD studies, it is not hard to imagine yourself in the shoes of an unemployed person. How long would you stay hopeful after a fruitless day of job hunting before you start to feel desperate and eventually discouraged?

One of the many reasons for being unemployed may be a lack of education or training. This is where an institution such as a university has a responsibility to make higher education as accessible as possible.

But is not only the responsibility of institutions to pass on knowledge and skills; it everybody’s duty. Alumnus Jabu Sithole has set an excellent example. As a school learner, he was part of the NWU’s flagship supplementary teaching programme, Ikateleng. Today, as a student recruiter at the campus in Vanderbijlpark, he is responsible for coordinating this project in the Vaal Triangle region.

Jabu doesn’t even have to imagine himself in the shoes of young learners – he literally walked in those shoes a couple of years ago. For him it is probably easy to empathise with the current Ikateleng learners as he understands the challenges they face and the educational needs they have.

Apparently we are born with the capacity for empathy, but from then on, it is learned behaviour. In other words, it is something that we can develop or enhance in ourselves and in others. Let’s use our skills in empathy to make life easier for those in need and set an example so that others can do that too.

Happy reading!

Nelia and the

NWU & U team