Tanya Calitz

After studying Occupational Therapy (OT) for half a year, Tanya Calitz dropped out of the medical profession. A career in law was calling her and at the beginning of 2012, she started again – this time as an LLB student. Could she ever have guessed that four years later she would become Kovsie Dux?

“I didn’t expect it at all,” Tanya says. “I was overwhelmed by the grace of God – and I even started crying!”

Kovsie Dux 2015

This year’s Kovsie Student Awards was hosted on 17 October 2015 on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS). The highest accolade that can be awarded during this event is that of Kovsie Dux, which celebrates a student’s excellence in not only the academic field, but also in leadership roles and extra-mural activities. According to Jonathan Ruwanika, former Student Representative Council (SRC) member: Academics, a student needs to achieve outstanding scores for all these criteria in order to qualify as a first-class student of the year. “Tanya is brilliant, she has distinctions in every module,” he says about her academic performance.

Commitment to both the Academic and Human Projects

“I’ve always had a passion for law and justice,” Tanya says. She expresses her commitment to both the Academic and Human Projects by fulfilling various leadership roles on the Bloemfontein Campus. In her first year, she formed part of various committees at the Soetdoring residence. She also participated in the prestigious Leadership for Change Programme which took her to Cleveland State University, United States. In 2012, she was elected for the SRC First Generation portfolio and served on the Golden Key Community Outreach committee. TheJudicial Societyof the UFS Faculty of Law also has her name under its servant list.

Upon graduating, Tanya is set to begin serving at the Constitutional Court as a law clerk to Deputy Chief Justice, Dikgang Moseneke.

Additional Kovsie Student Awards

Melissa Taljaard, an honours Psychology student, and Stefan van der Westhuizen, a fourth-year Medicine student took the Kovsie Dux second and third prizes, respectively.

The Student Affairs division awarded five Life Time Awards for leadership. The winners were Kerry-Beth Berry, Ntakuseni Razwiedani, Melissa Lucas, Mangaka Leteane, and Jonathan Ruwanika, in no particular order.

For the first time since its inception, the Kovsie Student Awards coincided with the Best Managed Residence (BMR) Awards as well as the Executive Committee (EC) Appreciation
Awards.