Tshegofatso Moabelo is a dynamic young woman who is passionate about development, women issues, education, entrepreneurship and research. She holds B. Ed honours in science education from the University of the Witwatersrand. She is a fellow of the Awual Socio-economic Research Institute (ASRI) Future Leader’s program 2020/2021. Through the program she went through theory based learning and then completed an externship as a Monitoring and Evaluation Intern at JET Education Service (2021). She is a firm believer that it is through combined efforts that so much can be achieved. After all, it is said collaboration is one of the most important skills of the 21st Century that one must possess in order to thrive in this world. It was indeed through the work we have done together with the fellows, the conversations we have had and the networks we have built that made the process so beautiful and worthy.
As a humanities student, I can safely say that I am not only in the school of education but I have a background of the school of social sciences because of this programme. I have gained great insight on the political ideologies and the political landscape of South Africa, civil leadership and the NGO sector.
My favourite part of the program was however, the writing sessions. It helped so much with my writing skills which I knew I needed to improve on if I want to be a great researcher. My second highlight was the CV writing sessions. It shed some light on how to build my personal brand, through the work that I do. I can say today I help people by revamping their CVs, which is a skill I have learnt on this program.
Through the program I have gained a great network of colleagues, fellows of the program who are game changers in their own rights. I have gained mentors from the JET Education services, people who are guiding me and helping me to become a good researcher and a game changer in the education sector. I have participated in conversations that contribute towards the development of education in South Africa.
It is through the program that I can say I have been exposed to different ways of contributing to the development and improvement of our education system. I have enough information to decide where and how I want to contribute; I believe I will become a prominent researcher and academic like I always wanted to be. I am much more interested in teacher education which one aspect of research I want to specialise in, looking into science teacher education.