8 SCiiS students participate in the ‘Africa by Bus’ initiative – Travel is a form of education in itself Ten students from the School of Consumer Intelligence and Information Systems (SCiiS) participated in the UJ ‘Africa by Bus’ programme. Of the 10, six students from the Department of Applied Information Systems (AIS) (Thandeka Nkutha; Lerato Tlhako; Surprise Ngoveni; Dakalo Nyambeni; Dikeledi Matloa; and Sanah Rasethaba) were selected to participate in the Africa by Bus initiative, arranged by the School of Management in the College of Business and Economics (CBE). Four students from the Department of Information and Knowledge Management (Oratile Mogwera; Refilwe Nkosi; Basetsana Ngwato; and Celokule Ngcamu) were selected, and one student (Nosipho Ndebele) was from the Department of Marketing Management. Overall there were 34 excited students in the bus, with the others coming from other schools in the CBE. We asked Dakalo Nyambeni, one of the AIS students, to share what the travel experience entailed. This is what she had to say: “Africa by Bus has been assisting students in travelling and learning about various cultures and nations since its establishment in 2017. I was one of the students chosen from Applied Information Systems to go to Namibia and study what they are doing better and what we as a department can take and apply. I was nervous about the unknown because I had never been out of my country before, but I was also thrilled about seeing and doing new things. The main thing I wanted to learn was what the University of Namibia was doing differently with regard to their infrastructure and IT department. On September 7, 2022, we went to the Windhoek Independence Museum and learned about the history of Namibia. It was difficult to hear about the genocide of the Nama and Herero tribes in 1904-08. The ‘Their blood waters our freedom’ memorial is a commendable tribute to remember and respect the victims. The Namibian tourism industry taught me the value of involving all stakeholders in order to achieve whatever goals we may have as a country. I also learned that it is critical for any professional with business plans to bring in investors who understand the business they are building. As a young lady, Mr Pedros’ words encouraged me to look into starting my own business. It is critical for us to be entrepreneurs as young people in order to create jobs and reduce our high unemployment rate. This experience taught me the value of involving all stakeholders, regardless of their power grid, in order to improve the country and its economy. Mr Pedro showed me that, as an entrepreneur, you must be willing to adapt your product offerings to current trends as technology evolves in order to remain profitable and relevant in the market you operate in.”
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