...across the world

Issue 19 | Autumn/Winter 2007

During his last year of schooling, Monash South Africa graduate Godfrey Hlongwane used a computer for the first time and it changed his life.

That same year Godfrey was awarded a Monash South Africa bursary to undertake a Bachelor of Computing. Now he has graduated and is working in the IT sector.

Back in 2001 getting access to a computer at his school, in the Mamelodi township north of Pretoria, had been difficult to say the least. The school had only three computers in a newly established library and they were available only to staff.

Godfrey's science teacher came to the rescue, bringing his own laptop to school and allowed him to teach himself a range of programs. This fuelled Godfrey's decision to pursue computer studies at the tertiary level, but even then he did not know if that would be possible.

Then, in an unexpected phone call, a former primary teacher told him about bursaries to study at Monash University's newest campus in Johannesburg. He applied and was successful.

It was impossible to travel from the township to Monash each day, so the University helped Godfrey find accommodation.

Initially he found university studies difficult because they assumed a much greater familiarity with IT than he had developed, but with regular access to computers and the support of Monash staff, he was coping well with his studies by the end of first semester.

"Eventually I would like to open a huge computer centre in the township I come from so that people can experience the technology and have more access to information," he said.

Godfrey recently completed eight months of training with Oracle. In April he started as a Java Developer with iNathi Technology Holdings.

For further information on South Africa campus scholarships, visit the Monash South Africa website.