On 27 August 2016, I was deeply honoured to be among people who have made outstanding contributions to society and was awarded a Distinguished Old Rhodian Award. Here is some of the coverage:
- Rhodes University Honours Outstanding Alumni
- Outstanding Old Rhodians
- JMS Alumni win at 2016 Old Rhodian Awards
I felt humbled, honoured and proud to have been selected for this award, but I felt most grateful for the opportunity the acceptance speech provided me to recognize some of the people without whom my life would be very different. While my delivery varied, this is what I said to a large extent.
Old Rhodian Award Acceptance Speech
Honourable members of Convocation, fellow awardees, ladies and gentlemen.
I am incredibly honoured to be with you today, among such distinguished fellow Old Rhodians to receive the Distinguished Old Rhodian Award.
The citation recognizes me, but the only reason that you see me here today is because of the remarkable people upon whose shoulders I stand.
I am the proud daughter of simple shopkeepers. My grandparents sold fruit and vegetables, milk, bread and other essentials in Sophiatown and Chinese goods in Marabastad. My father started his small business in a little wooden hut on a Pretoria West pavement with a single extension chord. Those two generations had one thing in common on a long path that leads to today: contrary to what many of their contemporaries believed, they believed in the value of education.
My mother, Jewel Accone (there), was the first person in our family to graduate university. Both she, my late father and grandparents held education and the opportunities it enabled as life’s most valuable asset. “Learn as much as you can, because no one can take it away from you!” was a family mantra.
And I was blessed with my life’s learning journey to have as a champion, my brilliant older brother, Darryl, (who is here also) who helped steer my evolution away from mediocrity to greater intellectual challenge and achievement.
Today I am also blessed to have a loving husband Jay and our 9-year-old son Calvin, who claims that he intends to study here at Rhodes too. (What exactly he wants to study he has no idea.)
My parents were very surprised when I chose to come to Rhodes. Family and friends assumed I’d be the third person in our family to attend WITS, following in the footsteps of my mother and brother. My parents were convinced that I based my decision on choosing the campus furtherest away from home, until I pointed out that if that had been the criteria I would have headed further south and west and closer to the southern tip of the continent.
Choosing Rhodes turned out to be one of the most important and best decisions in my life.
The motto of our university is “Where leaders LEARN,” and while there is much I could share about leadership, I’d like to focus on learning.
The ability to learn — anything — is the distinction between those who succeed and shape the future, and those who are shaped by it. It is why the world speaks less about “education” today and more about “learning.” It’s the essential skills in a world in which change is happening exponentially in most sectors. And learning, is exactly what Rhodes fosters.
Its intimate learning environment nurtures students to curate their curiosity. This was a place that let me, in the course of a Bachelor of Journalism degree, also pursue three years of study in industrial psychology and geography, and take law electives.
Rhodes is a learning community where we students are able to benefit from mentored relationships with lecturers that we still credit today.
In advance of today I connecting to the Old Rhodians I studied with, close friends ever since, we fondly recall Prof Colin Lewis, Etienne Nel; Roddy Fox; Larry and Lynette Steenveld; Vivienne de Klerk, Profs Oelschig and Midgley.
Among my particular cohort, we have no higher regard than for our journalism lecturer, Kerry Swift, who prepared us all to seamlessly enter not only the world of media and adapt and shape its exponential rate of change, but to enter, learn continuously from and thrive in the world.
To have a career that has so far spanned journalism, technology, human resources, strategic planning and innovation. Reinvention demands being confident that you can learn anything and that confidence and competence was honed right here.
It is that connection to the applied reality and context that is so important, in a way moreso today than ever before. And to understand that
Students at Rhodes have a tremendous opportunity to become involved with the Grahamstown community and demonstrate their value and that of this institution to the local community.
It was this meshing of town and gown that fanned the flame of public service for me. When I was a student we seized opportunities to work with mothers in Ghini to tackle the nutrition challenges they identified, contribute to Legal Aid and volunteer at Settlers Hospital.
Our university has the capacity to contribute more and be more widely recognized for the outstanding work it already does.
Our world class journalism and media studies school, our computer science department and technology breakthroughs from our biotechnology and nanotechnology innovation Centre. Rhodes University punches well above its weight class.
All of us — convocation, university staff, students and Old Rhodians have a duty to support Rhodes in maximizing its positive impact on society, and to ensure we do the same individually.
I have had the good fortune to study at four universities on three continents, but this is the one I always claim to be a graduate of. Rhodes is an inseparable part of any success I have had, so this award is as much tribute to all of you and this institution, as is it to me.
Thank you again for this great honor.
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