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15 February 2018
Photo Anja Aucamp
House Veritas show up and show off
The first-years’ athletics evening had arrived. Students were more than eager to get off the ground with the activities as they poured into Pellies Park grouped in their specific residences. The stadium quickly filled and livened up as students sang and cheered in anticipation of the official races.
The event was graced by the likes of Anna Sofia Botha, also known as Tannie Ans, the coach of South African World and Olympic champion Wayde van Niekerk.
DB Prinsloo, Director of KovsieSport at the University of the Free State (UFS), and the official announcer for the night, said he was looking forward to witnessing the talent that was about to be unleashed.
“The athletics is one of the highlights on the calendar of the university for the year,” said Prinsloo.
According to him, a total of 15 newly recruited athletes who had won medals at South African junior competitions in 2017 had amalgamated with the UFS. Needless to say, it will be a year of victories.
It was a great success, with houses Vishuis and Sonnedou the overall team winners for the night. Veritas and Legatum were in second and third position in the men’s competition. Arista were placed second for the overall women’s competition, and Marjolein and Wag-'n-Bietjie came in third place. House Harmony, Imperium and Veritas won the spirit cup for the female, co-ed and male teams respectively.
‘Your capacity for change is limitless’
2013-09-13
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Ready for the world - students taking part in the 2013 Leadership for Change programme getting ready to travel to universities in the USA, Europe and Asia.
Photo: Johan Roux
12 September 2013 |
“You will change this campus, city, country, continent and the world, because you have the capacity for greatness,” Prof Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State (UFS), said.
He addressed the 2013 group of first-year students in the Leadership for Change programme at a farewell function before they will leave for universities abroad. The first 104 students from the 2013 total of 144 will depart on 18 September and return on 3 October 2013. The second group of 40 students will be abroad from 11 to 25 January 2014. The students are from the Bloemfontein and Qwaqwa Campuses. They will be accompanied by mentors from the UFS.
The students will visit 17 universities in the USA, Europe and Asia.
The first 71 first-year students in the Leadership for Change programme were sent abroad for two weeks in September 2010 to get intense exposure to the academic, social, cultural and residential lives of students in the USA. In 2011 the student number more than doubled and universities in Europe were included. In July 2012 the programme brought students from around the globe to the UFS for the Global Leadership Summit.
Prof Jansen inspired the young leaders, saying, “If you learn leadership values in your four years of study, a change will come. Build the new value system and take it into the country. Your capacity for change is limitless.”
He encouraged them to learn to know the stranger, not only abroad, but also the beggar at the street corner. “Learn to be comfortable with the beggar, as well as with the professor in the classroom.”
A stringent evaluation and training programme preceded the group’s visit abroad, and Prof Jansen could not formulate their achievement better: “I cannot tell you how proud I am of you.”