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Dr Shezree Tiel graduates top of her class

13 December 2023 | Story André Damons | Photo Charl Devenish

As she achieved the goals she had set for herself, Dr Shezree Tiel, one of the latest graduates from the University of the Free State (UFS) Faculty of Health Sciences (FoHS), developed the courage to not only define her goals, but aim for even more. This is the reason she graduated not only summa cum laude, but as the top student in her year group.

Dr Tiel was one of 459 students who graduated on Friday (8 December 2023) during the FoHS’s December graduation ceremony. She graduated with a MBChB degree and is one of eight students to do so summa cum laude. During her five years of studies to become a medical doctor, she was the top student in each of her year groups.

“I feel very excited and still in disbelief, because it has been my dream since first year to graduate cum laude, but there were moments I felt I may have to accept that it may not be possible. So, I am very delighted that despite all the challenges I faced, my dream was realised,” she said.

According to her, she decided to study at UFS as it is the only university in South Africa that offered a five-year medical degree.

Building healthier and happier communities

Talking about how she achieved this, Dr Tiel, who will be doing her community service year in her home province of Mpumalanga, said what was consistent throughout her years of study, was the need to avoid a uniform approach to studying. Instead, she continued, she embraced different ways to learn.

Said Dr Tiel: “I embraced different ways to acquire knowledge and used these to identify a method of study that would be best suited for each module, chapter and sometimes each day. Everyday courage, resilience, patience, and perseverance played a vital role in accomplishing all my achievements. In spite of all of this, I will always attribute my achievements to my trust in Christ.”

Her desire to make the best possible use of every opportunity she gets to gain knowledge and the hope to use that knowledge to be useful to people and communities, motivated her on her journey to become a doctor. She decided to study medicine because she aspired to work with people in the pursuit of building healthier and happier communities. She believed that medicine would provide a great foundation and platform to accomplish this.

Though she is yet to decide in which field she would like to specialise one day, she believes it would be in internal medicine because it has always been one of her favourite rotations. “I do hope whichever one I go into will provide me with an opportunity to teach because that is one of the things I delight in.”

News Archive

UFS receives research grant focusing on enablement of non-profit organisations

2011-01-20

Prof. Mabel Erasmus

The University of the Free State (UFS) has received a research grant to the value of R1,1 million from the National Research Foundation (NRF) to conduct research on community engagement, with the emphasis on knowledge as enablement – a Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) focus.

This was the first time the NRF had requested applications for research with a focus on community engagement (CE). With the grant, the UFS has become one of the first recipients of a research grant that focuses on community engagement.

The overarching research question that will be dealt with is how Higher Education Institutions (HEI) and the NPO sector can establish long-term, research-based collaborative engagements that will be mutually empowering and enabling through joint, reciprocal knowledge-based activities and capacity building.

The contention that this proposal is based on, is that HEIs have limited knowledge of the NPO sector and thus are unable to be fully responsive to the challenges that NPOs face. What is more, it is very likely that staff and students from HEIs do not have an adequate grasp of the experiential understanding, contextual community knowledge and practical know-how that NPO practitioners have, and hence do not appreciate the crucial contributions that they can make with regard to meaning-making processes aimed at improving some of the harsh South African realities.

According to Prof. Mabel Erasmus, Associate Professor and Head of the university’s Division: Service Learning, which submitted the research proposal to the NRF and is the grant-holder, the university would like the information generated by the research to be beneficial to both HEIs and the NPOs. “Knowledge regarding NPOs, specifically their challenges and information about what they are doing, will be invaluable to HEIs. At the same time, the research must benefit the NPOs with knowledge to improve their practice and strengthen their functioning.

“The research will take place in close collaboration with the NPOs, as their inputs are crucial. The research will thus not be ‘about’ them but ‘with’ them.”

“We do not want to send our students for community-based education or as volunteers to NPOs year after year and it does not mean as much to them as these organisations would hope for. With the research process we would like to strengthen NPOs, to build their capacity and give them our whole-hearted cooperation,” she said.

Funding received from the grant will be applied over a period of three years. Except for the study grants for five Ph.D. students and four master’s students, the grant will further make provision for a number of workshops, a local conference, a publication and presentations at international conferences on this matter. The research team of 22 persons includes academics from other HEIs such as the Central University of Technology, University of Zululand, University of Johannesburg and Monash SA. Several staff members of NPOs also form part of the team, including REACH (Bfn), Childline (FS) and others.

Prof. Erasmus said that the UFS was one of a few institutions that were currently conducting research to this extent on the link between the NPO sector and HEIs within the field of community engagement.

Media Release
18 January 2011
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication (actg)
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: news@ufs.ac.za

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