Page 64 - Thetha Issue 7

ALUMNI FEATURES

19 sporting codes and clubs
available to students at
Mandela University

Water Polo Star

Dives into Pharmacy Career

By Gillian McAinsh

ne of Ash Vaughan’s most to flight delays back from Japan. “You can ask any pharmacy
memorable moments The South African water polo student, it is so terrifying! It’s the
was competing as part player, and coach, now 24, finished most pressurising way of being tested
Oof the first South African her degree at the end of 2022 and because you can’t sit and think about
women’s water polo team to take part graduated in April 2023. it, you have to answer the question
in the Olympic Games. “University definitely taught me and move on to the next.”
The Nelson Mandela University how to manage my stress, and how to While still in Japan, she heard she
pharmacy graduate also will forever prioritise things – and my degree was had passed and there was only the
remember the games, held in Tokyo always number one,” she says. oral still to tackle.
in July and August 2021, for another She got the call for the Olympic “I was to do my oral exam the day
more academic reason. Games in her third year. after we were supposed to land but
They were slap bang in the middle “Basically, I had to write all my all flights got delayed on the way back
of her third year of pharmacy studies, exams before I left, except for one from Tokyo,” she recalls.
and she nearly missed a key exam due oral which is very stressful. “Everyone else could relax for a

64 | Thetha Edition 7 | 2023