On Thursday 19 March an excited group of grade 11 learners from Nathaniel Nyalusa and Mary Waters High Schools set the foundations for a project of the Dean of Students (DoS) Office that will build bridges between Rhodes and our local school communities. Over the next couple of years potential future students from township schools around Grahamstown will be brought onto campus to experience a typical day in the life of a Rhodes University student.
The project aims to encourage awareness of diversity in terms of racial and socio-economic status among both students and learners. By having students spend a full day in each others' company, it is hoped that they will begin to discuss important personal issues and thereby foster a few real friendships too.
Sixty visiting learners from Nathaniel Nyalusa and Mary Waters arrived on campus in time for breakfast at the Drostdy and Kimberley East dining halls where they were teamed up with their student hosts. Wide-eyed with anticipation and feeling a little strange in an evironment that was completely new to them, the excited chatter of learners from Nathaniel Nyaluza buzzed across the tables at Drostdy.
“We are very happy to get this opportunity,” said Sindiswa Solani.
“To me its great to learn more,” added Nandipha Ngcete excitedly. “If there is a gap for education like this we have to be a part of it.”
Nokubonga Sali, who aspires to be a businessman, said he appreciated what Rhodes is doing and that he was looking forward to attending lectures.
A core purpose of the project is to provide local learners with the kind of information they will need if they want to apply to come to Rhodes in future such as financial aid opportunities, bursaries, admission requirements and how to apply. Tholakele Nkwanyana, a third year student host from Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal was excited at the opportunity to fill in some of the missing blanks that are present for many first-generation students. She reflected on how much she still had to find out about how the university works, opportunities for bursaries and many other facets of campus life when she first got to Rhodes.
That afternoon at Kimberley Hall learners from Mary Waters said they could teach some of the students a thing or two about appreciating the wonderful opportunity they had to study at Rhodes. Zinobulali Nondlwane said that students who arrived late and spoke during lectures were taking their opportunity to study at Rhodes for granted. An aspirant Drama student, she was disappointed to have been teamed up with a first-year student of Psychology and Fine Art. Siphokazi Snyman, who wants to study Musicology, was a bit more upbeat about having her eyes opened to the world of Fine Art: “I have learned a lot, especially in Fine Art.”
Yoweli Njengaye wants to study Geology and Meteorology but was matched with a student in Music, who he described as “really laid back”. He felt he had missed an opportunity to gain insight into his desired field of study.
Some learners said they would have been interested in visiting facilities at Rhodes such as the computer laboratories and the library that enhance the Rhodes learning experience yet sorely lack at the schools from which they come.
This was the first in a series of visits by local schools which on the whole provided learners with a positive experience of the Rhodes campus. “The day went extremely well,” said Larissa Klazinga, and we are now looking at rolling it out to more schools during the course of the year.” Rhodes relies on students to volunteer their time and it is therefore difficult to always match learners up with ideal hosts for their areas of interest, specifically given that senior students generally have less time to volunteer.
To help quench the learners’s thirst for knowledge about the facilities at the university, it is proposed that students will in future be briefed to offer a comprehensive tour of these facilities.
The project is primarily intended to build positive relationships with schools that are the source of potential future students in the township.
How the Bring a Future Student to Rhodes Project works:
1. Every term, the DoS office arranges for one or two Halls of Residence to act as "host" for one or two local township schools for one day.
2. Over two years, every Hall of Residence (including the Oppidan Hall) will participate, and eventually we will host all of our local schools.
3. Rhodes will invite the Grade 11 class to visit Rhodes for the day.
4. Each scholar will be "twinned" with two willing Rhodes student volunteers in the Hall who are of the same gender (and hopefully with similar academic interests), and they will meet the student in the morning.
5. The hosting Rhodes students will be expected to know something about financial aid opportunities, bursaries, admission requirements and how to apply to Rhodes, so that they can share this information with their visitor.
6. The two students will share the hosting of the scholar for the entire day, accompanying them to class, to tea, to residence, to lunch, to pracs etc., so that they can experience a typical day at Rhodes.
7. The learners will be fetched from their schools at 7h15 and dropped off at the host halls at 7h45. They willl also be transported home at 16h00.
Picture Caption:
from l-r: Jasper Shepherd Smith, Siphokazi Snyman, Yoweli Njengaye, Mandy Moran and Zinobulali Nondlwane