Dear fellow alumni,

 

Often enough we tend to let the madness of this thing called life distract us from taking a minute to reflect on an event that means something. I recently heard that I had been accepted to study for my master’s degree at the University of London, at the School of Oriental and African Studies.

 

I have also recently been told that I have been awarded the Chevening Scholarship, which will make these postgraduate studies a financial reality. While this is no Nobel Prize in economics, I am taking this moment to give credit where it is due. None of this would have been possible without two institutions: the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, and the Debate Society on the campus in Potchefstroom.

 

Being a young academic, I have learnt all too quickly that to be noticed, you are to heed the adage of “publish, or perish”. While I understand the incentives for many lecturers to focus their time and energy on their research, I can attest to the overwhelming majority of them striving to mould young minds. If it had not been for Dr Carike Claassen who actively chose to go far above and beyond what is expected of an academic, I would never have discovered economics, let alone hoped to study it at one of the top universities in the world.

 

Prof Derick Blaauw, Prof Waldo Krugell, Dr Anmar Pretorius and Dr Alicia Fourie have also shown me what it means to want more, to work for it and to expect things to be better tomorrow than they were yesterday.

 

While there is no doubt that the NWU has many areas in which it can and indeed, will improve, these are the words of a thankful student. I have been blessed to have been shaped and influenced by the people that make up this university.

 

To those who have forgotten what the word gratitude sounds like – I thank you. I salute you for being more than you were ever asked to be.

 

Kind regards,

 

Michelle Groenewald

(Letter slightly shortened.)