Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

#UFSWomen: Dilahlwane Mohono: From cleaner to recipient of two honours degrees

17 August 2021 | Story Nonsindiso Qwabe | Photo Supplied

Dilahlwane copy — A story of hope, courage, resilience, and working your way to the top. Dilahlwane Mohono started working as a cleaner at the UFS in 1992. Today, she is a Senior Faculty Officer in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences and holds two honours degrees.

Fuelled by her deep pain due to falling pregnant during her matric year, as well as the desire to one day hold a qualification, Dilahlwane Mohono – Senior Faculty Officer in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences – says her story is her favourite, as it is a story of hope, courage, resilience, and working your way to the top.

Because of her pregnancy, Mohono did not complete Grade 12 in 1990. She got married immediately thereafter. In 1992, she began working as a cleaner for a company that was insourced to provide meals on the University of the Free State Qwaqwa Campus. She says this experience often left her with mixed feelings, as it hurt to see her peers studying further, but this is also what ultimately motivated her to complete her matric. “Graduation ceremonies were the most painful events for me. This eventually pushed me to turn to ABET to complete my matric in 1994. From there, I was determined to start my academic journey, so I registered with Stanford Business College for a Secretariat and Computer Skills Diploma. It was a six-month course, but I graduated in the end. That graduation inspired me. It motivated me to study further. Juggling work and studying became challenging, because I was a young mother and wife, but I had to attend classes after work.”

The joy of education

In 2000, she registered for a Higher Diploma with Unisa, and at the same time took up a new position in the library on campus. At the time, it was still called the University of the North Qwaqwa Campus. She recalls this as the beginning of her upward trajectory in life. “The joy of education and seeing how far I have come made me realise how much potential I have, so in 2003 I registered for a BA Sociology and English degree at the UFS, and thereafter went on to do my BA Honours in Sociology.”

She took up a new position as Assistant Officer in the Faculty of Education. Wishing to be relevant to her new faculty, Mohono completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE), and thereafter a second honours degree in Curriculum Studies. “I felt like I was flowing. My colleagues helped me out and I wanted to ensure that I was the best in everything, because I did not want to disappoint them. What always encouraged me, were my children. I separated from my husband in 2003, so I found myself raising my kids single-handedly, and I needed to show them that we could all make it, and life would still go on.”

In 2018, the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences advertised a senior position. Mohono says she took a chance and applied because she wanted more growth. “I am now a Senior Faculty Officer. I was privileged to be afforded an opportunity to work for the university, so I always thought – how can I work in an academic higher learning environment and not use the opportunity to study and pursue an education.”

Is there a woman who inspires you and who you would like to celebrate this Women’s Month, and why?

It has to be my late mother. She was a very hardworking woman, but she passed on very early, in her early 40s. She worked in the same dining hall I started in, and a lot of the women I worked with then worked with her too. They took me under their wings and motivated me to continue chasing my dreams. Some were not even educated themselves, but they motivated me. I drew a lot of inspiration from them.

What advice would you give to the 15-year-old you?

She must take pride in being a woman, know who she is, and know that she must be brave and confident, and run with education as the key to her success. If it wasn’t for education, I shudder to think where I could’ve been. When I look back and see what I have achieved, being able to rise from all that while single-handedly raising my children, it makes me feel very strongly about myself. I am a very powerful woman.

News Archive

African Student Affairs Conference a huge success

2011-05-24

Mr Rudi Buys, UFS Dean of Student Affairs, Mr. Folabi Obembe, Managing Director of Worldview International, Ms Birgit Schreiber, Director of the Centre for Student support services at the University of the Western Cape, Dr. Augustinah Duyilemi, Dean of Student Affairs at the Adekunleh Ajasin University in Nigeria, Dr. Christina Lunceford, assistant Director for the Centre for Research on Educational Access and Leadership at California State University in America, and Prof. Cecil Bodibe, student affairs veteran and consultant.
Photo: Earl Coetzee

The African Student Affairs Conference (ASAC), which took place on our Main Campus last week, was a major success, with two days of lectures and discussions and two pleasant social gatherings, where delegates had the opportunity to get to know each other.

The conference, hosted on African soil for the first time, and co-hosted by the University of the Western Cape (UWC), started on Wednesday 18 May 2011 with an informal welcoming session. Delegates got to meet each other and Mr Rudi Buys, UFS Dean of Student Affairs, explained the meaning of South African words like "kuier" and "lekker'.

The official start of events took place on Thursday 19 May 2011, in the Reitz Hall in our Centenary Complex. The conference was attended by delegates from universities across the continent and aimed to place the focus on issues relating to student affairs in an African context.

Delegates shared and exchanged strategies, ideas and resources, and discussed issues related to the work of student affairs professionals. The conference hoped to promote an exchange of best practice and assist attendees in identifying successful programmes.

Among the topics discussed on the first day, were “Constructing Post-Conflict Democracy on campus: a case study of transformation of student governance and political engagement as post-conflict intervention”, by Mr. Buys, and a discussion on ways in which social and online media can be used to ease the challenges of student interaction, development and support, by Ms Birgit Schreiber, Director of the Centre for Student Support Services at UWC.

A panel discussion, led by Mr Buys and several members of our Interim Student Council (ISC), discussed the specific challenges faced at the UFS. The importance of buy-in from role-players in decisions taken by University management in order to ensure their success, was discussed, using the UFS and our recent changes as an example.

The successful integration of residences on campus inevitably came under the spotlight and the recently resolved Reitz-saga was named as a catalyst in getting students less apathetic and more involved in attempts at creating racial and social harmony.

Dr Christina Lunceford, Assistant-Director of the Centre for Research on Educational Access and Leadership at California State University, presented a paper entitled A National Approach to Building Capacity in Student Affairs in South African Higher Education.

She commented on the fact that there is little or no philosophical framework or explicit theory that informs practice of student services in South Africa.

According to Dr Lunceford, student development should be a key concern for every department or unit within student services and emphasized the need for a centralized student development unit at each university.
She also touched on the need for institutions to implement support from international student affairs professional associations, professional development for student affairs practitioners, the utilization of technology to support professionals in the field, and working with international partners to explore future opportunities, as ways in which student affairs can be used to drive performance and change at universities.

The conference continued in the Scaena theatre on Friday 20 May 2011, with presentations by Dr Augustinah Duyileme, Dean of Student Affairs at Adekunle Ajasin University in Nigeria, and Prof. Bobby Mandew, Executive Director of Student Affairs at the University of Johannesburg (UJ).

Dr Duyileme presented a paper on the challenges faced by Nigerian universities with regard to student conflict and protests, which often turn violent, and how such violence can be curbed through proper planning and management.

Prof. Mandew presented a very well-received presentation on UJ’s successful off-campus housing initiative, which involves home-owners and business owners in the areas surrounding their campuses.

Their approach demonstrated how proper planning can prevent problems associated with over-population in private homes and conflict with neighbours of the university, usually related to an influx of students into residential neighbourhoods.

This problem is faced by many universities, as more and more students flock to universities on the continent and campus residents cannot accommodate them.

The conference came to a close on Friday, with most delegates agreeing that the exchange of knowledge which took place was extremely valuable.

Ms Deborah Lahlan, of Nigeria, said: “This is an important conference for Africa and it should become a regular event.”

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept