Overcoming the odds

Despite growing up in poverty and attending Quintile 1 or 2 schools throughout their schooling, and despite all the challenges which 2020 brought, Tshepo Lenkoe,  Thabo Maliea, and Lebohang Ngake achieved greatness.

Tshepo made the Free State’s 2020 Top-100 Matriculation list. He obtained 5 distinctions, including 93% for Physical Science and 95% for Mathematics. Additionally, a few months earlier, he and Lebohang had each  won a silver medal in the 2020 Eskom for Young Scientists International Science Fair. Thabo won a gold medal at this competition and was chosen to represent South Africa in the Taiwan International Science Fair in February, where he received a third level award. Earlier in 2020, Lebohang won the Eskom turns 40 video challenge with his creative video describing his Expo journey.

All three young men were part of the University of the Free State, South Campus’s TopKids programme (also called RocketKids), run by Dr Angela Stott as part of the UFS School Partnership Programme, from grade 8 to grade 12, with Tshepo having joined as young as grade 6. As part of this programme, they attended intra- and inter- school science clubs where they were taught the scientific method and guided to apply this to their own research projects. This led them to participate in the Science Expo at local and regional levels each year, and each of them to qualify twice for participation at the South African International Expo.

They also received electronic devices, with CAPS-aligned Natural and Physical Science software from Dr Angela Stott, and engaged extensively with this software, also participating in the related quarterly TopKids competitions, from grade 8 to grade 10, where they were fierce rivals but also firm friends. Tshepho and Thabo are now studying BSc degrees at the University of Cape Town, and Lebohang is taking a gap year to improve his Maths and Science marks, develop his video-making skills and grow his Science, Maths and Technology teaching YouTube channel.