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18 April 2018
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Gerda Steyn, former Kovsie student and winner of the Two Oceans ultramarathon this year, with her trophy.
Gerda Steyn, female winner of this year’s Two Oceans ultramarathon, says her life has changed for the better in a very short time.
The former Kovsie received an invitation to a world-renowned marathon at the end of the year. She may not reveal the details yet.
Steyn, who studied Quantity Surveying and Construction Management at the University of the Free State (UFS) between 2009 and 2012, was just the third South African to win the Two Oceans since 1994. Her time of 3:39:31 was the second-best in the past seven years. For many she was a surprise winner because she didn’t compete last year and only managed a 14th place in 2016.
“Things really took off since the race (in Cape Town at the end of March). I received a lot of exposure. People say you must try and win the race, but they don’t tell you what will happen after that with all the media attention.
“My next goal is the Comrades for which I started training in the third week of April. I will only decide on my specific goals for the race two weeks beforehand.” She obtained a fourth place last year.
According to Steyn, who is a full-time athlete, she only did a couple of cross country races while she was studying.
“I played a bit of soccer and hockey for my hostel (Soetdoring). I have very fond memories from my university days. A couple of our hostel friends had a reunion after the race in Cape Town and had reason to have a big party.”
UFS and BMF present a crash course on Financial Literacy for Young Entrepreneurs
2017-08-23
Starting a business, big or small, can be a really difficult task – especially if you are not equipped with the basic business knowledge to help you kick-start this project.
For this reason, the University of the Free State (UFS), in collaboration with the Black Management Forum (BMF), held a Financial Literacy Workshop for Young Entrepreneurs on the Bloemfontein Campus early last week to assist in this regard.
Young entrepreneurs equipped with business knowledge for start-ups
The purpose of the workshop, which was presented by Francois Marais and Eduard Loots from Riskflow, was to equip young entrepreneurs with knowledge and skills to assist them in the business world. The main focus was on training start-up businesses to prepare business plans, and training was given to researchers, developers, and innovators on how to commercialise their inventions.
Ansie Barnard, Senior Officer in the UFS Business School, says since the involvement of the school in entrepreneurship development over the past few years, they came to the realisation that many of these new businesses tend to fail within a year because they do not have a suitable financial model.
“This is the reason why we utilised Riskflow Financial Modelling Software, since it does all the accounting calculations on their behalf,” says Barnard.
Introduction to basic business banking
In addition to this, the participants were introduced to the basics of business banking, with Standard Bank and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) as the guest presenters providing them with this information.
BMF’s Rozanne Brown says that many of these young entrepreneurs have the desire to succeed in business; therefore there is a need for this type of workshop.
BMF and the UFS Business School will look into hosting more entrepreneurial workshops in the future,” says Brown. All attendees of the workshop will receive certificates for their participation.