Latest News Archive
Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
29 March 2022
|
Story Teli Mothabeng
|
Photo Supplied
![]()
Philmon Bitso, Student Recruitment Officer, with the top-10 cohort of the class of 2021 Free State Star of Stars.
The Department of Student Recruitment Services at the University of the Free State (UFS) hosted its annual Free State Star of Stars competition at the Amanzi Private Game Reserve during the first week of March. The event saw some of the brightest young minds in the Free State inducted as UFS first-year students into this year’s top-10 cohort for the competition. This marks the first Star of Stars event since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
.jpg?Status=Master&sfvrsn=d7324e20_1)
This new cohort consists of a dynamic group of academically gifted students from Quintile 1-3 schools in the Free State who are currently enrolled for different UFS academic programmes, ranging from Medicine, Law, Education, and various Bachelor of Science courses. Many of these students had to overcome insurmountable challenges to perform as well as they did in their Grade 12 academic year and to become part of the top-10 cohort for the class of 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Student Recruitment Services was forced to take a different approach to celebrate these deserving students; consequently, a weekend-long induction camp was the substitute for the annual gala dinner.
Apply for the 2022 Free State Star of Stars competition
The UFS realised the need to establish a platform that recognises and celebrates the diverse and, in most instances, difficult circumstances that disadvantaged schools (Quintile 1-3) are facing. Consequently, the Star of Stars competition was developed and established in 2016. This competition provides disadvantaged Grade 12 learners from all districts in the Free State an opportunity to showcase their excellence, while motivating them to aspire to achieve more.
Eco-building workshop and rehabilitation through collaboration
2017-03-17
A demonstration of eco-building at Lebone Village
recreation centre
Photo: Supplied
An intimate learning platform was created when Velile Phantsi and Mokoena Maphalane, two community members who had received training in eco-building from the University of the Free State (UFS) Centre for Development Support (CDS) under the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, presented a workshop for 10 Free State psychiatric patients in Bloemfontein on 23 February 2017.
Building self-sustaining communities
The training programme took place at Lebone Village recreation centre, at a structure that was built through the eco-building initiative, Qala Phelang Tala (Start Living Green). The collaboration between the Department of Occupational Therapy at the Faculty of Health Sciences and CDS has the potential to address unemployment and housing backlogs and forms a significant part of the rehabilitation of vulnerable people. It has also created prospects for community-based research.
Training and support to rehabilitate vulnerable people
Following the sharing of skills, the Department of Occupational Therapy will continue to work with patients through this community engagement project. Trainees will receive support in building a recreation centre structure at their own complex. During the presentation Mokoena Maphalane shared his personal experience of how physical activity such as eco-building helped him recover from the debilitating effects of a stroke. It is something he hopes will assist other patients in the future.
More information on eco-building.