It is with great excitement that we ushered in the 2021 Siyandisa Foundation Scholarship recipients, a dynamic and hard-working group from across South Africa boasting 50 top black grade 12 learners who achieved exceptional results at the end of grade 11. Showing heaps of promise for a similarly stellar performance in their matric year, this is certainly a class to watch.
To meet this terrific group of vibrant leaders, visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SiyandisaScholarships as we continually introduce each outstanding scholar and their equally deserving school.
Since the Siyandisa Foundation Scholarship journey began with the programme’s inception in 2017, we have seen our young scholars overcoming some of the most challenging circumstances - displaying resilience, endurance, and sheer determination to achieve great success in their matric results. “Each class has its own identity and unique character, and it has been truly inspiring to observe how their overall standard keeps rising. Every year we have seen the total number of distinctions achieved at the end of matric, increase. This, however, is no coincidence. When it comes to academic excellence and determinedly pursuing their dreams, our scholars mean business. In addition, the programme has consistently evolved in its offering to give our scholarship recipients every ounce of the support, guidance and mentorship they need to perform at their very best”, says Cikizwa Bacela, Programme Coordinator.
To experience how this unique scholarship programme celebrates excellence, tune in to the recording of the exciting recent virtual awards event which took place on the 1st of July 2021: https://bit.ly/SiyandisaFoundationLaunch2021
By now the programme boasts a total of 225 scholars spread across high schools and mainstream tertiary institutions all over South Africa and has shown significant growth over the years.
Determined to grow excellence through this unique scholarship programme, Siyandisa Foundation’s main goal is to develop proudly South African leaders, executives, entrepreneurs and academics, and to that end the programme has been consistently evolving to create room for new developments.
While at its core the programme’s focus of affording quality academic support to grade 12 learners in Quintiles 1 to 3 schools has not changed, it is increasingly incorporating a new range of learning resources and tools which are aimed at seeing scholars exit high school at the highest possible level and excel even more at tertiary level. It is once more the case with the addition of even greater support to the 2021 offering.
“In previous years, our recipients have enjoyed the benefits of our offering in the form of learning resources, university preparation and career counselling, merit bursaries and partial bursary support. Our scholars have continuously expressed how big a difference our tools have made in their academic journey, and we are excited to announce the new changes to the programme, having no doubt that these too will add much value.”
The programme has just incorporated in its offering additional components which make up part of three phases, each catering to the various levels of relevance to the recipients: 1) Secondary Support, which is an online Matric Curriculum Support Programme presented by expert subject teachers in five core subjects, with scholars also having access to revision support; 2) Tertiary Support, which, under our new Tutorship Programme, involves our senior Siyandisa Foundation alumni as tutors to all entry-level tertiary students within our programme to further empower them with necessary support and mentorship. Through this initiative, our alumni benefit from the opportunity to enhance their own leadership skills, as they will not only be rated on their performance but will also receive a valuable incentive for their work; 3) Executive Development, a new component to the Siyandisa Foundation Scholarship Programme aimed at providing an evolving and continuous journey to each recipient as they progress academically at the tertiary institution of their choice. Its goal is that every recipient scholar not only has the opportunity for funding and bursary support, but that in partnership with our sponsors and donors, scholarship recipients receive vital upskilling in the form of vocational training, internships, learnerships and in-service training which is aimed at securing greater possibility for absorption into the job market. In this way, we are confident we will successfully meet our objective of imparting to our Siyandisa Foundation Scholarship recipients a legacy that enables scholars to reach greater heights.
For even more about the Scholarship Programme, be sure to visit our website at www.siyandisafoundation.co.za.
With the SIyandisa Foundation’s already solid footprint across all nine provinces, audiences far and wide have been showing great interest in the learning tools the programme provides, in particular the 50 high-definition videos addressing a range of subjects such as Mathematics, Accounting, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and English First Additional Subject. To ensure the widest possible reach and influence, and so as to not just limit it to the benefit of our scholarship recipients, this quality material has now been made readily available to anyone who visits the Siyandisa Foundation YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/SiyandisaFoundationYouTube
In response to this gesture, Mrs Mavis Serakalala of Mulenga Secondary School in Limpopo, had the following to say: “Not only has the Siyandisa Foundation’s learning resources provided the necessary focus on specific themes which our learners tend to struggle with, but it has really complemented all our efforts as educators in trying to help learners achieve the best possible results. I can assure you that it is not only the select learners in your programme who enjoy the benefits of your material, but we have over the years been able to share the resources with all our Grade 12 classes, our neighbouring schools and the rest of the various districts too. We cannot show enough appreciation for the work you do for our learners, who are in need of all the help and resources they can get– bearing in mind the rural areas that we hail from.”