“I had a vision, and Unisa was in it.”

After graduating with a Bachelor of Education in the senior and FET phases, during which she earned 27 distinctions, Lettah Sikhosana can be considered a dedicated and ambitious student.

“I come from a very supportive background. My mom is a domestic worker and my father a truck driver. But their occupations didn’t hinder me from doing what I love,” she said. Sikhosana was born in Kwaggafontein, Mpumalanga, and is now only 22 years old, having completed her degree in record time. “I’m the first one (in my family) to obtain a formal qualification. With such achievement, it made it easy for me to realise that it doesn’t matter where you come from, but how prepared you are to change the life you are living and the circumstances that you grew up with.”

Sikhosana admitted to facing a great deal of criticism when she chose to further her education through Unisa. “People said I would never enjoy a campus life,” she said. “But I had a vision, and Unisa was in it.” She acknowledged that studying through a distance learning institution was initially difficult for her, as a young first-year student. But, “I learnt independence,” she explained. “The support I received from my mentor and the tutors was amazing. I learnt to trust myself over others and to lean on support where it was available.”

Studying in such an independent manner has in no way hindered Lettah in her academic and professional endeavours. “I don’t want to limit myself,” she said. “In 2008 when I was doing my Grade 8, I fell in love with teaching. I formed close relationships with my teachers and I wanted to understand what fields they were in. I wanted to break the negative mentality surrounding commercial subjects.”

Lettah graduated cum laude and is the College of Education’s Student Association deputy chairperson. She has now registered for an honours degree in environmental education.

“I don’t want to limit myself, because limitations are very dangerous. Having confidence in what you want to achieve in life comes from overcoming the little voice in your head that keeps on reminding you that you are not capable. You need to have power to silence the noise and prove it wrong because if you don’t overcome your fears in life then who will do that for you? Therefore it’s very important that everyone, especially Unisa students, takes charge of their studies. That they work hard and be dedicated in what they do, because everything is possible if you believe in yourself.”

*By Carmen Taxer