The North West Sports Awards took place on 18 November, and the North-West University (NWU) scored two top spots.

Onalenna Tsae, alumnus and former coach of the NWU boxing team, clinched the title of Sports Administrator of the Year.

NWU student and a netballer of note, Elmeré van der Berg, walked away with the Sportswoman of the Year award.

Onalenna's accolade recognises her contributions, in particular her pivotal role in the women's commission of the North West Provincial Sport Confederation.

Through a collaborative effort between the North-West University (NWU) and the universities of Pretoria, Venda, and Limpopo, the Ubuntu Community Model in Nursing hosted a poignant gender-based violence (GBV) awareness event at the Mahikeng Provincial Hospital on 21 November.

The event, strategically aligned with the annual 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign, aimed to draw attention to the pressing issue of GBV.

The Voices of the River choir from the North-West University (NWU) recently participated in The Lengau Choral Music Association (LECMA) competition. They came second in the wafa wafa large category.

They performed an extract from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera, Macbeth, even though it is regarded as one of the most dramatic and vocally intensive operas in the world, they did it with ease.

This chorale group from the Vanderbijlpark Campus has gone from strength to strength under the baton of Calvin Mofokeng, who also won the award for Best Choir Conductor.

205 Meeting Street, Charleston, South Carolina 29401, United States. Here, on the doorstep of the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by low-country marshes, is where nine BA Honours in Tourism Management students from the Mahikeng Campus of the North-West University (NWU) will call home when they embark on a journey of a lifetime on 21 November.

Their destination is the five-star Charleston Place hotel, and their stay in the Palmetto State – a nickname acquired from its most famous tree – will last four exciting months and is a paid internship facilitated by Awesome Travel.

The all-encompassing and wide-ranging 178-page diagnostics of the South African economy embedded in the report “Growth Through Inclusion in South Africa”, prepared by Ricardo Hausmann and his team from the Growth Laboratory at Harvard University, is a timely and relevant document.

On 13 November, the North-West University (NWU), in collaboration with the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), Higher Health (HH) and the Vuselela Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) College, hosted a gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide assembly.

The event took place at the Sanlam Auditorium on the Potchefstroom Campus, and it was aimed at raising awareness of the fight against GBV and encouraging collaboration to eliminate violence on the campuses of higher-education institutions.

Post-apartheid South Africa continues to have many unresolved problems and unfulfilled promises, despite significant progress in certain areas. A recently published book on the work of the late anti-apartheid activist and intellectual, Mzala Nxumalo, aims to make important contributions to the intellectual work that lies ahead for South Africa in current troubling times – particularly in the context of contemporary leftist politics.

Teaching the youth community-based research and transversal skills is a valuable investment in the future. It not only benefits the individual by providing practical skills and a sense of purpose, but also contributes to the growth and well-being of the community. This approach helps generate informed, engaged, and responsible citizens who can actively contribute to improving their communities.

In this spirit, the North-West University (NWU) hosted its first Youth Learning Festival at the Potchefstroom Campus on 18 August.

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) says it is ready for this weekend’s voter registration (18 - 19 November) and is urging the youth to make use of this opportunity to be able to vote in next year's local and national elections.

However, Naledi Modise, lecturer in politics and international relations at the North-West University (NWU), notes that the North West province has among the lowest turnouts in the country, with only 42,36% of registered voters turning out to  vote in the 2021 local government elections.

When we all lend a hand in helping the communities around us, we improve everyone's quality of life. This is what the Lifting Dreams organisation aims to do. Lifting Dreams seeks to transform communities through education – and it should come as no surprise that academics and students from the North-West University (NWU) are part and parcel of this weekly run initiative.