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03 April 2019 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa | Photo Vhugala Nthakheni
Uhuru Qwaqwa Arrival
The #UFSWalkToUhuru team arrives at the UFS Qwaqwa Campus on Friday 22 March.

The University of the Free State (UFS) Division of Student Affairs, in collaboration with the UFS Office for International Affairs, have joined hands to drive a fundraising and student-accessibility initiative dubbed, ‘The Walk to Uhuru’ (#UFSWalktoUhuru), which is aimed at raising funds and advocating for the educational rights of the less privileged. 

The project aims to raise funds in excess of R2 million from the public and stakeholders affiliated with the UFS (Kovsie staff and students). The project derives from the 2018/2019 UFS Institutional Student Representative Council (ISRC) mandate ‘Students Must Graduate’. The ISRC mandate aims to source funding opportunities for UFS students to register, and to complete their studies across all three campuses in 2020 and beyond.

The first leg of the project, a 350 km walk from the Bloemfontein to the Qwaqwa Campus, has already taken place and concluded on Friday, 22 March 2019 as planned. The #UFSWalkToUhuru team successfully completed the first leg of their journey to academic freedom for financially disadvantaged students at the UFS. The Uhuru team is now focusing its attention on the second leg and is determined to take on Mount Kilimanjaro (Uhuru) from 20 June to 20 July 2019.

The team sat down for a debriefing session to unpack the overall experience and result of the first half of the initiative, and they all agreed that the walk to Qwaqwa was an enlightening experience. It was a walk that comprised learning opportunities, team building, and goal crushing.

According to Rethabile Motseki, member of the #UFSWalkToUhuru team, the walk to Qwaqwa made a significant impact on the project, as the university community is now aware of the significant goals that the team is trying to accomplish. The team has also resumed their fitness-training programme to ensure that they are ready to take on the Uhuru climb in June.

A media briefing will take place shortly (date to be confirmed) to detail the ongoing fundraising initiatives rolled out by the #UFSWalkToUhuru team.  We implore you, and the nation as a whole, to help establish a better future for disadvantaged UFS students by donating to the initiative.

Students, staff, and the public can support the cause and make contributions/donations to the initiative by visiting the UFS Walk to Uhuru #givengain account page.

For more information, contact UFS SRC President, Sonwabile Dwaba, on DwabaSJ@ufs.ac.za  or Rethabile Motseki on MotsekiR@ufs.ac.za  

Dr Martin Mandew, Qwaqwa Campus Principal
Dr Martin Mandew, Qwaqwa Campus Principal
#UFSWalktoUhuru arrives the Qwaqwa Campus
#UFSWalktoUhuru arrives the Qwaqwa Campus
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News Archive

Master’s student awarded Mandela Rhodes scholarship
2015-11-25

 

Candice Thikeson’s name will be added to the Mandela Rhodes Scholars book
Photo: Valentino Ndaba

Candice Thikeson was recently selected as the only 2016 Mandela Rhodes Scholar from the University of the Free State. She is one of 50 young African postgraduate students, eager to contribute positively to the educational development of the continent.

The Mandela Rhodes scholarship is a fully-funded postgraduate scholarship awarded to promising future leaders by the Mandela Rhodes Foundation. It is named after the former president of our country, Nelson Mandela, and Cecil Rhodes, who was known for his business skills and political influence in South Africa. Instituted in 1999, the scholarship aims to advance scholars who demonstrate the principles of Leadership and Reconciliation embodied by Mandela and Rhodes’s legacy, as they relate specifically to Education and Entrepreneurship.

Thikeson expects the programme will educate her on how to integrate the four pillars in relation to her field of study.

For Thikeson, earning the scholarship served as an endorsement of her dream of becoming an academic. “I want to obtain a PhD, lecture at a university, publish papers, and speak at conferences,” she related. “I also want to produce academics, I want to mentor young people,” she added.

Her academic journey began in 2011 when she pursued a BA Fine Arts degree for a year. Thikeson then transferred to a BA General degree which she completed over two instead of the standard three years. She went on to study an Honours degree in Art History and Visual Culture Studies. In the same year, she travelled to Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (University of Groningen) in the Netherlands as part of an exchange agreement between the university and the UFS, where she completed her mini-dissertation in four months. Both her BA and Honours were passed with distinction. Currently, Thikeson is pursuing a Masters degree at the Department of Art History and Image Studies under the supervision of Prof Suzanne Human.

Some accolades to her name include the Jan Teurlinckx Prize for the best student in Art History (2011), the David Jacobs Prize, awarded to the best student in Philosophy (2013), and the Richard Miles Prize, presented by the Dean of the Faculty of the Humanities (2013). Thikeson was also selected as a member of the Golden Key Honour society in 2012, for her consistent academic excellence.

Last year, Lehlohonolo Mofokeng, Zola Valashiya, and Tumelo Morobane made the UFS proud by graduating as the class of 2015 Mandela Rhodes Scholars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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