When you listen to Jerry Lesele and Mpho Masia talking about their time as students of the North-West University’s Vanderbijlpark Campus (NWU), it becomes clear that their university experience was about much more than just graduating.

For them, university study represented endless new experiences and as such they proudly acknowledge their lifelong relationship with their alma mater.

“We firmly believe in the concept of paying it forward. We received so much – in both formal and informal education during our time at the Vanderbijlpark Campus, we naturally want others to reap the same rewards we did.” Having said this, Jerry and Mpho went to work and successfully coordinated and constituted the campus’s first alumni chapter aptly called the NWU Vaal Young Alumni Homecoming Group.  

Tasked with arranging an annual reunion, the dynamic duo have managed to raise in access of R23 000 for their alma mater: in 2015 the reunion raised a total of R14 310 and this donation was followed up with another R9 480 in 2016. The funds were raised by hosting two “Homecoming Picnics” on campus, which saw more than 500 alumni members converging on the banks of the Vaal River to reminisce about times gone by and to celebrate old and new friendships.

The income generated during the 2016 rendition of the picnic was recently handed over to Prof Linda du Plessis – acting campus rector, and Mr Warren Makgowe – executive director for stakeholder relations, and will henceforth be deposited into the tuition fees component of the Campus’s Feather Fund. The funds will be used to assist undergraduate final-year students who completed their studies but are not able to graduate due to outstanding fees.

According to Ms Alwine Naude – alumni coordinator, this donation will help support the next generation of alumni and contribute “immensely” towards the vesting of a culture of alumni giving. “We all want to make the world a better place,” Naude says. “Alumni, by sharing their time, talent and money literally pays it forward for other students. I applaud this group of young alumni for stepping up and changing the lives of worthy students by enabling them to receive their university education.”

The Homecoming Picnic is an annual event on the Campus’s alumni calendar. 

Here are Mr Warren Makgowe, executive director for stakeholder relations, Mpho Mosia, Jerry Lesego and Prof Linda du Plessis acting rector of the NWU’s Vanderbijlpark Campus.