Scholarship Realized!
Posted by David Lamb and Julie Walz, Fellows
When we began creating a scholarship project, we hoped for this day: when the first official recipient would be selected to attend a private high school and then move on to university, fully funded. When we could tangibly see the life that we had changed. But this day was always hypothetical; an elusive goal in the future.
Now that the day has actually come, it’s incredible. And a bit hard to wrap our heads around.
The Mundzuku Foundation in partnership with MAD and the Buffleshoek Trust awarded the first scholarship to Ncane Mabunza, in December 2009. We got to know Ncane well during our time in South Africa and she’s a wonderful girl: a very bright student with excellent English. She loves acting, singing, chairs her high school debate team, and wants to become an engineer. Unfortunately since we are no longer in South Africa we have been unable to help facilitate her transition to the private Lowveld High. Yet the ThinkImpact country director, Megan, and the other fellows have been crucial in this process, driving her to interviews and helping her to shop for school supplies before beginning her first day on Wednesday. We are confident that Ncane will succeed, both at Lowveld and beyond.
The Mundzuku Foundation along with ThinkImpact, the Buffleshoek Trust, and their private donors are truly beginning to change the face of education and the opportunities available to students in the Manyeleti region. Three grade 7 students in the past three years have also been selected to receive scholarships to Lowveld. Which means that in addition to the four lives that have been drastically altered, the scholarship recipients are an inspiration to their peers who begin to see that opportunities are available. It’s an incredible accomplishment and we want to express our sincerest gratitude to all the supporters and donors that made, and continue to make, opportunities possible. We are changing lives, one education at a time.
