Page 37 - Thetha Issue 7

ALUMNI AWARDS

Curwyn Mapaling

BPsych (Counselling) and PhD Global Peace Summit in Kenya this
(Doctor of Philosophy in Education), year; an event in which participants
Nelson Mandela University experience self-contemplation and
engagement with young people from
Mandela University former staffer across the globe.
Mapaling is making waves in the His achievements include an
ever-changing field of psychology, Abe Bailey Travel Bursary (2014),
scooping international recognition for a Mandela Rhodes Scholarship
his approach to the field. (2015), and being a Brightest Young
A registered clinical psychologist Minds Delegate (2016), a Top 100
and senior lecturer at North-West ABSA Gradstar recipient (2020) and
University, he was one of only 150 former chair of the Nelson Mandela
participants worldwide to attend the University Student Alumni Society.

Sedibu Mohlaba

BTech [Financial Management], Mohlaba worked at Youth Cricket
Nelson Mandela University; Academy in Gqeberha, Polokwane
Harvard ManageMentor municipality and Limpopo Impala
programme graduate and Cricket Cricket before joining CSA’s women’s
South Africa Level 2 coach team as manager in 2020.
His fledgling company, Future
Sedibu Mohlaba’s lifelong passion for Stars Group, will not only promote
cricket is more than a job – his dream sports events, but hold academy
is to give every South African child the activities for children. He hopes that
chance to fall in love with the game, this will have a major impact on not
as he did. only the lives of future sports stars, but
The national women’s team high on the communities and provinces in
performance programme manager, which they live.

SPECIAL AWARD

Professor Cheryl Foxcroft

Emeritus Professor of Psychology; Learning, Development and Assessment Strategist;
former Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Learning and Teaching
I n a career spanning more than 40 years, including the successful navigation of academic

chaos during COVID-19, Prof Foxcroft earned widespread respect from the University
community and beyond, cementing her role as a leading light at the institution.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Learning and Teaching since January 2020, Prof
Foxcroft retired at the end of 2022. She holds a PhD in psychology, has been an
integral member of Mandela University’s management core since 1997 and made
far-reaching contributions to South African higher education.
Her pioneering vision for saving the 2020 academic year during lockdown
focused on how to restart learning and teaching for 29 000 students dispersed
across the country and beyond, and resulted in a blended learning pathway system
that is still used by the institution today.

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