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17 July 2023 | Story NONSINDISO QWABE | Photo Supplied
Buhle Hlatshwayo
Buhle Hlatshwayo has been selected for the 2023 Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) Programme.

Buhle Hlatshwayo, a master’s student on the UFS Qwaqwa Campus, has been selected for the 2023 Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) programme. Despite initially doubting herself, she took a leap of faith and applied for the programme, which turned out to be a successful decision. The Fulbright Programme is a prestigious scholarship programme that provides opportunities for international educational exchanges. The programme’s overarching aim is to enhance intercultural relations across more than 160 countries.

Hlatshwayo will be teaching isiZulu at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, for an academic year. She leaves South Africa at the end of July.

Hlatshwayo is currently pursuing her Master of Arts with specialisation in English on the UFS Qwaqwa Campus, where she also completed her undergraduate and honours degrees in the same field. Her research focuses on East African Arab migration narratives to the Global North, with a focus on exploring the legacies of colonialism. She is also a learning facilitator in the same department.

A prestigious opportunity 

A friend and colleague, Mxolisi Mabaso, encouraged her to apply, knowing her desire to explore opportunities abroad. 

“I am still in awe of how this opportunity came about, especially because someone else saw potential in me while I didn’t believe in myself. My good friend pushed me to apply, because he knew I always wanted the opportunity to go abroad. I am thrilled and honoured to be part of this prestigious programme. I am looking forward to experiencing the US culture and ways of being.”

On her love for English, Hlatshwayo said she has always been fond of the subject but never considered it as a potential career path. After completing her undergraduate degree, Dr Kudzayi Ngara, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English on the Qwaqwa Campus, encouraged her to pursue an honour’s degree in English, which ultimately shaped her academic journey.

Professional and personal growth awaits

While in the US, Hlatshwayo said she is looking forward to immersing herself in American culture and pursuing courses in American studies. She aims to learn more about diverse cultural backgrounds and share her South African heritage and cultural values with the international community. She said this exchange of experiences and ideas will broaden her horizons and contribute to her academic and professional development.

“The opportunities would not present themselves if you were not capable. If you know your goals, seize any opportunity that will enable you to get there. I was not granted this opportunity because I’m smarter than everyone else, but because of how I articulated my genuine motivations with future goals and how the Fulbright programme will help me achieve them,” she said.

News Archive

British piano duo perform at Odeion
2016-10-19

Description: British piano duo  Tags: British piano duo

David Nettle and Richard Markham, better known
as Nettle and Markham, will be performing in the
Odeion on 20 October 2016.
Photo: Supplied

The Odeion School of Music (OSM) at the University of the Free State (UFS) will be hosting one of the world’s foremost piano duos. Nettle and Markham perform in the main concert halls of Europe and with major British orchestras such as the London Philharmonic, the RPO, the CBSO, and the ECO as well as other international orchestras. They also participate in major international festivals such as the Bath, Harrogate, Berlin, Schleswig-Holstein, and BBC Proms.

The British duo have been delighting audiences throughout the musical world for nearly forty years and will perform at the Odeion on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus on 20 October 2016. David Nettle and Richard Markham are considered one of the most entertaining and musically satisfying partnerships performing today.

"We have not heard here until now a piano duo of such exceptional quality. The understanding of the music by both partners is so good that you cannot distinguish by hearing which of them picks up the musical theme. At the same time it is playing full of colour and spontaneous musicality, stirring and ravishing," Vecemi Praha said.

Nettle and Markham's varied recital and concerto repertoire encompasses not only standard works, but also their own distinctive transcriptions. Their highly praised recordings reflect the range of styles they are known to assimilate effortlessly, from Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring to Sir Malcolm Arnold’s Concertos for two pianos.

In addition to their regular concert schedule, recent seasons have seen them devoting large amounts of time to preparing new recordings - the complete four-hand works of Schumann and Saint-Saëns being the first in a series of projects designed to keep them busy from now until their 40th anniversary seasons in 2017 and 2018.

Event:
Nettle and Markham – two pianos
Date: 20 October 2016
Time: 19:30
Place: Odeion (Bloemfontein Campus)
Cost: R130 (adults), R90 (pensioners), R70 (UFS staff members), R50 (students and learners), R50 (group booking of 10+). Tickets available at Computicket.

For more information contact Ninette Pretorius at +27 51 401 2504.

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