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22 September 2021
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Story Michelle Nöthling
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Photo Supplied
Annemarie Le Roux.
“I love working with children.” This is one of the first things Annemarie le Roux mentions when asked to describe herself. This love for children propelled Annemarie into the field of education and she graduated in 2006 with a BEd in Foundation Phase at the UFS. Annemarie immediately immersed herself in the Deaf community, enriching the lives of children at the Thiboloha School for the Deaf in Qwaqwa and the De la Bat School for the Deaf in Worcester.
The academic world enticed Annemarie back to the University of the Free State (UFS) and she was appointed as a junior lecturer in the Department of South African Sign Language (SASL) and Deaf Studies in 2013. Going from strength to strength, Annemarie completed her master’s degree in SASL in 2019, and published an
article earlier this year that she co-wrote with Marga Stander. In this article, they found that SASL “has become an increasingly popular language that hearing university students want to learn as a second language” and subsequently explored different teaching methods used for this emerging group of interested students.
Although now firmly established in academia, Annemarie is still committed to the practical application of SASL. “I am closely involved in student and community engagement through the
SIGNALS Sign Language student association that helps empower the Deaf community and South African Sign Language.” She also interprets for the Deaf community whenever she gets an opportunity, as well as for Deaf students in class and meetings.
On the importance of Sign Language and the recognition of the Deaf community in South Africa, Annemarie believes it will open greater opportunities for development. “More people will be able to learn SASL, and it might even become a subject in school for hearing children.”
Department of Architecture builds next generation of architects
2010-03-22
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| With Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS are René Malan en Sancha Olivier. |
Since 1987 first-year architecture students have been building huts on campus annually as part of an introduction to architectural studies at the Department of Architecture at the University of the Free State (UFS).
According to Martie Bitzer, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Architecture, the students build these full-scale huts in groups of two, with responses to orientation, materials (grass, reads, earth construction – mud bricks), climate and community over a period of approximately three weeks.
On the day that the students completed their huts, Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS, visited the small community of 27 huts in the veld behind the Rag Farm. Here he was taken on a walk amongst the huts. He also addressed staff and students of the Department of Architecture
“I can smell excellence and goodness,” was some of Prof. Jansen’s remarks as he walked amongst the huts.
“Top students come to our Department of Architecture. Quality attracts quality. The recent achievements of this department are proof of this,” he said.
One of Kovsies final-year students, Wim Steenkamp, was named National Corobrik Architecture Student of the Year 2008. This was the second time in the past three years that a student from the UFS Department of Architecture has won this prestigious competition. The department also received unconditional accreditation from the South African Council for the Architecture Profession (SACAP) for all three courses offered, and over the past few years its students have won the Tripod Photography Competition, the National Cement and Concrete Institute Competition for honours students, and the Carl and Emily Fuchs Foundation Student Prestigious Prize.
This once again confirms the prestige the department enjoys in the field of architecture in South Africa. It is also proof of the quality of staff and the programmes offered at the department.