PARTNER STORY
UNIVERSITY FELLOWSHIPS FOR STUDENTS WITH BLAZING AMBITION
T
he Allan Gray Orbis Foundation (the Foundation) brings together a fellowship of individuals of extraordinary character, each selected and groomed by the Foundation, though not for a return on investment for the organisation itself as there are no obligations to ‘give back’ to the company. No, the obligation goes far beyond the firm – to make an impact in the countries, cities and communities where they live.
The purpose of the Foundation is to nurture entrepreneurship, which Allan Gray himself believes is the best way to ensure long-term equality and prosperity in Southern Africa and the world. Fellowship recipients, known as Candidate Allan Gray Fellows, receive funding for university, but more importantly they are given access to a network of remarkably accomplished individuals who inspire and help to cultivate each Fellow’s entrepreneurial mindset. These three young Namibians share their inspiring journey to becoming part of the Fellowship.
JUSTINE SHIKOMBA I was fortunate to receive a Foundation Scholarship, which allowed me to go to St Paul’s College for high school. In grade 12 I applied for the Fellowship. It is a lengthy process, with many essays, and this lead to a three-hourlong interview and then I was invited to a selection camp. At the selection camp there were many sleepless nights. I was a grade 12 learner along with first and second year students. The one thing they tell you is just to be yourself. But you get there and you’re not even sure yet who ‘yourself’ is, so you just try. It’s amazing to be part of the programme. It is a nurturing, growing process. You get allocated a personal leadership officer and she or he is continuously in contact with you. Then there are self-development reviews, and they ask you thought-provoking questions to gauge how far you’ve come. It’s not a case of them sending you off with a cheque to go and perform: they show you that you are smarter and more capable than you think you are. Every year over 300 Fellows come together for a jamboree, where you hash out entrepreneurial ideas. You can see people have thought
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about amazing ideas to conquer the problems we have in society. You see how people’s degrees and what they have studied shape their ideas. I want to be an actuary when I graduate. I love accounting-based maths, not physics-based maths. It’s tangible. Actuaries model the future, whereas accountants show you what happened in the past. We use what we have now and try to see how that will apply in the future. My message to school children would be that it gets harder, but you just need to keep pushing until you can’t any more, and even if you can’t any more, there are probably people around you that can help you. You must have the end goal in mind. It’s four years of suffering for an eternity of amazingness. RORY PARKER I was about 10 years old when I figured out that I had an immense passion for numbers and hence wanted to go into the actuarial field. At Windhoek Gymnasium, I chose subjects such as Mathematics, Entrepreneurship, Accounting and Physical Science that would help me achieve my vision and develop my cognitive ability.