Emma completed her post-graduate degree in Financial Analysis and Portfolio Management in 2010. She founded the Business Learning Network in 2008, an NGO focussed on educating and equipping women, in the informal settlements of South Africa, with hands-on business skills and a focus on entrepreneurship.

She is currently gaining international experience working in the City of London for a South African bank.

Fazlin's journey since graduating from Stellenbosch University in 2009, has seen her take the road less travelled in pursuit of her dreams.

Feeling the need to explore and gain a greater perspective on the contemporary issues faced by all nations, Fazlin spent a year and a half in South Korea as a Curriculum Advisor and English Instructor. The experience gave her key insight into the Education System of one of the worlds fastest growing economies.

Having completed my thesis in 2013, and after an unexpected delay, I will graduate with a Master of Arts in Ethics from the University of the Western Cape in September 2014.

After gaining, through SAWIP, professional exposure at the World Bank’s Office of Ethics and Business Conduct in Washington, D.C., I undertook (in late 2013) a two and a half month internship at The Collective Leadership Institute, an international non-profit organisation that specialises in stakeholder engagement, where I was a Project Assistant. Currently, I am involved with SAWIP as one of the Team Managers for 2014.

Lifting others up as we rise

I will be doing my Honours in Economics in 2014 at the University of Cape Town. I am a volunteer for Nal’ibali (meaning ‘here’s a story’), a cluster project of the Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa (PRAESA) which helps people learn to read.

I am the co-founder of Wanawake (meaning ‘woman’ in Swahili), an organization which seeks to act as an empowerment platform for women in Africa by redefining and personalizing women leadership and fostering a culture of mentorship. The pillars of the organization are leadership development, mentorship, and networking.

I am enrolled to begin a Post Graduate Diploma in Sustainability with the Sustainability Institute in Stellenbosch in 2014. SAWIP has contributed to what I am doing because I was made aware of the Institute and the interesting work it does through interactions with my team members. Also, having the professional exposure in Washington D.C., broadened my prospective and opinions on possible career paths.

One of the main takeaways from my SAWIP experience in 2013 is the issue of youth contribution to political and socio-economic discussions. I believe that sustainability is something that youth ought to be more concerned about considering that it will affect us mostly in the future.

I am currently completing a Masters in Economics at the University of Cape Town. I help run holistic tutoring programs in and around Cape Town that involve academic and music opportunities and am a mentor for a team participating in a youth entrepreneurship competition called ‘Innovate the Cape’. This competition aims to get learners to come up with and implement creative ways of positively impacting their communities.

My SAWIP experiences deepened my belief in the need to ask questions of and listen to people in order to better understand their points of view. In an increasingly income-unequal society and one that is generally characterised by individualism and personal success, it also kept in focus the need to be empathetic in forming and expressing views and in taking certain actions.

I have recently completed my Honours in Industrial Psychology at the University of the Western Cape.

SAWIP has greatly contributed to who I have become. Through SAWIP I am more aware of the impact that I am capable of making in this world and how I am able to meaningfully contribute by doing what I am passionate about: helping people realize their full potential as SAWIP has done for me. I want to continue being a servant leader and, when pursuing my career, I look to work for an organization that is socially and environmentally conscious.

I am a student at the Sustainability Institute (partner of Stellenbosch University), where I intend to complete my Master’s degree in Sustainable Development in 2014. My research is about the nutritional disorder stunting and the intervention strategies used in sub-Saharan Africa. I will be spending 6 months at Mekelle University in Ethiopia on a TRECCAfrica Exchange Scholarship. This will add valuable insights to my studies in nutrition and hunger in Africa, as well as allowing me another opportunity to travel and become more familiar with another part of the African continent.

Since my professional exposure at the John Snow, Inc. (JSI) SPRING project in 2013, I see clearly how I can make a career of my vocation. This is in part due to the opportunity afforded to me by SAWIP. I hope to use the network and contacts I built up through SAWIP in my future endeavours, specifically as I pursue another degree in public health in the near future. Public health is in a sense an intersection of many of my interests. Broadening my understanding of the field was facilitated by the professional exposure at JSI, one of USAID’s contractors for public health programmes around the globe.

I am currently running community intervention projects through an NGO I started called Youth End Poverty and volunteering at the District Six Museum.

The year 2010 was a phenomenal year for South Africa and for me. I was selected to be part of SAWIP and it enabled me to expand on my work with Youth End Poverty. It also allowed me to build a network of friends. I believe that the DC experience and professional exposure played a pivotal role in preparing me for the demanding world of work. SAWIP has also provided an opportunity to work with other young people within SAWIP that allows me to further develop my skills but also to celebrate servant leadership.

Being part of the SAWIP community has allowed me to further build on my leadership qualities and expand my knowledge of servant leadership. I recently returned from a sojourn in South Korea and have found myself working in education publishing for the international publisher Pearson.

One year ago, I would not have believed that I would be so different and so blessed to form part of a community of role models, change makers and exceptional young leaders. SAWIP has been an absolutely fantastic journey and even though my time on the official program is over, the impact, experiences, and especially friendships still linger on. To this day I still maintain close contact with my host family in D.C. and the tight bonds formed with the 2012 Team members makes keeping in regular contact quite natural.