I am pretty sure that if I was to ask any alumni of SAWIP who has had the honour of being on this programme since its induction to write a book about their journey and what they learned during their 6 months on the program, the common response would be “sure, how thick would you like it to be?” This is no different for me.

In a few days from now, part one of my book will have come to an end; a part that consists of 3 chapters. Here is a short summary of what the chapters would say:

Chapter 1. Friends

I have always been lucky enough to have good friends around me, and in March of 2012 this luck sky rocketed. Selection camp for the SAWIP class of 2012 was a weekend were I met 29 amazing students from my and other universities, I met alumni from years past, I met the management team and a number of board members ; all who are people of such quality that I find it difficult to describe. Although the camp was the best part of a weekend, there was not nearly enough time to speak to all these brilliant people, to be honest, not even a month would be enough time. Many friendships started here already.

The next weekend of orientation was a bitter-sweet moment. Bitter in that 15 friends were no longer with us but sweet in that there were still 15 of us and the management team seemed to be less scary. Being more relaxed, friendships grew stronger.

Selection camp, orientation camp and the next 10 weeks of meetings, team activities and discussion sessions prior to DC didn’t just bring people together, it made a group of people a team; a team that is without doubt some of my best friends.

Chapter 2. Washington DC

6 of the best weeks of my life. From the moment I stepped foot out the terminal in DC till the time I got back onto the plane, the experience was so powerful that it changed my life to such an extent that I still cannot quite comprehend it. The only thing I can say here is thank you to all the following people:

My host family were brilliant and made me feel like a son and big brother from day one; my supervisors and colleagues at the World Bank are all so knowledgeable and passionate about what they do; every single speaker at sessions who we had the privilege to meet and chat to, gave so much insight about topic which are so interesting; the WIP and NSL teams who made the USA trip an even more multi-cultural one; some of the Alumni who spent their experiences and advice with usand the management who worked their hands raw to make the experience a superb one. Lastly and most certainly not least the teamof 2012,uou along with all the other factors changed my life!

Chapter 3. Growth on return

The 6 weeks in the USA are so busy that you simply do not have time to realize how much you are learning and how fortunate you are to be having the experience you are having. Only when I returned did I realize how much growth had taken place in just 6 weeks. The lessons that I learned while in DC and having reflected upon them when I got home has put me into a position where I am so excited about the future; a future that has already started and one where I will be able to look back at the last 6 months and say “how is that even possible?”

Part one is finished but part two of my SAWIP journey is about to start. SAWIP has given me so much that part of my excitement about my future is in giving back to SAWIP; becoming a servant of this profound program and helping SAWIP do for other young South Africans what it has done for me

Hello Board Members, Host families, Intern Supervisors, Friends of SAWIP, Management and SAWIP team of 2012.

My name is Jason Pentz it and is such an honour to be standing in front of all you great people, people who have all assisted in changing the lives of 15 students from South Africa over the course of just five and a half weeks

As this is our last full day in DC and is a farewell, I find it fitting that I base my speech on the idea that everything in life has a beginning and an end.

Allow me to tell you more about myself by going back to the beginning of my life. Slightly more than 24 years ago, my beginning was in Cape Town and is where I have spent most of my life. At the end of my school career I like many South African Students had a decision to make, the decision to use the previous 12 years of my education as the start of tertiary education or to end it there and make a new beginning. If it was up to me alone, I would have made a new beginning and become a full time cyclist. Like most caring and protective parents do, I was encouraged to cycle for fun and go get an education. What a monumental fail that was. That idea of getting a tertiary education stared and ended all in one year. With much effort, I convinced my caring parents that I was going to cycle professionally. After a successful beginning to a cycling career, I found myself traveling all around the world, racing against the greats of the sport and competing in World Championship events. I was living a childhood dream, getting paid to ride a bicycle.

About two years into the “dream”, I seemed to come to a cross roads with my life, I was living everywhere but at home, I was meeting all the greats of my sports but never spending time with the people that matter in my life and most concerning to me was that I was doing all of this for myself, no one but Jason seemed to matter. This challenged everything that my parents had taught me while growing up. After a long and hard look at the young man in the mirror, I decided to call an end to my professional cycling career and make yet another new beginning.

This new beginning was as a student at the University of the Western Cape. Three years into my Industrial Psychology degree I know I have finally found a beginning that makes sense to me. Having gone through two very different life learning beginnings and ends and having the opportunity to study again, I knew that I needed to make the most of this second opportunity at education that most young South Africans don’t even get one chance at. Along with the realization of my fortune I also knew that I need to give back in any and every way possible.

By getting involved at university as a Peer Mentor and student leader, I came across the opportunity of SAWIP for which I applied and was fortunate enough to be allowed another opportunity to create a new beginning. Everything along this SAWIP journey has been a new beginning.

Going back to what I said earlier about everything in life having a beginning and an end, I need to quickly revisit and correct, most things – not everything in life have a beginning and an end.

Allow me to explain my correction which I am sure my fellow team mates will agree with.

Firstly, at our first event as a team which was the orientation camp we all began real friendships. These friendships have turned out to be more than just friendships; they have grown into relationships which I cannot foresee an end to.

Secondly, throughout the program in South Africa and continuing in DC, we have been gifted so many opportunities of meeting amazing and inspiring people, we were given the opportunity to develop a deeper and stronger passion to help others, to help our fellow youth of South Africa and to help grow our beloved country. This re-inspired awakening given to this amazing team is something I cannot foresee an end to either.

And finally, the learning of new insights that has taken place by each and every member of this team both in South Africa as well as in DC has allowed for the realization that we never know enough. Being aware that there is more to learn forces us to never think that we know it all and that we can end our pursuit on learning.

To everyone here today, I would like to conclude by speaking on behalf of the SAWIP team. Four months ago we were given the opportunity to meet each other and in so doing we were given the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest student leaders in our country. If that alone wasn’t enough, we were given another opportunity to met some of the most amazing people in the form host families, intern supervisors and SAWIP friends, all who have made this summer a truly unforgettable one. This journey of DC may be at an end, and the journey of the SAWIP 2012 may be coming to steady close but I would like to leave you with a thought of how Winston Churchill would see it.

………this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. It is, perhaps, the end of the beginning - Winston Churchill

Thank you.

There are many aspects of the SAWIP program, one is the engagement in dialogue with experts in their respective fields. Each week we have a different theme with different guest speakers. Apart from the guest speakers who are always amazing and knowledgeable, we have SAWIP student lead discussions based on the week’s theme. Every week the discussions are very engaging and always seem to create a better or new understanding of the relevant topics. Today’s student lead discussion was on unemployment and entrepreneurship which I really enjoyed. Not only was it very interesting, but the passion that the whole SAWIP team put into the discussion was very encouraging.

From a personal perspective, I really found the discussion today very stimulating. The creativity that filled the room has seemed to stick into my head. Now to put that creativity into action…..

Today the SAWIP team spent their afternoon at the Holocaust Museum in downtown DC. I would love to say how much fun it was, but I don’t think fun is a word that can describe the experience.

Having gone to the Holocaust Museum (HM) in Cape Town a few years ago and having heard that the DC HM is much bigger I truly thought that today’s visit would be much of the same just on a bigger scale….how wrong I was.

On entering the permanent exhibit at HM, the very first graphic was one of a pit full of deceased Jewish prisoners who appeared to have been burned. This immediately woke me up to the reality of this visit.

The 4 floor exhibit took about 2 hours to explore and during the whole experience I seemed to be asking two fundamental questions. 1. What were the German Nazi’s thinking when causing all this devastation and 2. How were these disrespected Jewish people feeling while living and experiencing death through this time? Along with these two questions, I was visiting my own beliefs and trying to reflect on what I would do if I was in either of these two situations. Additionally, an idea that I am really trying to understand is the idea of humanity and what does that word humanity mean. Is it a noun or is it a verb? Is humanity absent from people who carried out these ruthless killings; and is humanity something that was striped from those who were forced into situations of fighting for their lives?

So many questions and so many answers that need to be worked on attaining, this is definitely something that I need to pursue not for anyone else but myself. I seemed to question or even lose the faith in humanity today. I know that my current feelings of lack of faith do not reflect my understanding of the good that humans do on a daily basis.

I may not have enjoyed what I experienced today but I know for a fact that I am a better off because of it.

Today, the 10^th of July 2012 is definitely one that I will jot down as one of the most memorable, not only of my trip to DC, but possibly of my life. Apart from the ever amazing experience of spending yet another day as an intern at the World Bank, the high light has to be short time that the SAWIP team had the honour of going to Capitol Hill and meeting Congressman John Lewis.

Prior to arriving at Capitol Hill, I knew some of Congressman John Lewis’ history and knew that I would be in the presence of a man that has played a huge role in the fight for equal rights for Americans, especially the oppressed Black African Americans during the times of the Black American Civil Movement.

When Congressman John Lewis walked into the room next to his office in which the team was sitting, we immediately experienced the humbleness of this Great man. He walked around to all of us greeting us and made a point of not leaving anyone out, shook everyone’s hand and then made sure that we all had a seat before he even though of continuing with our meeting.

Every lesson that came from what Congressman John Lewis spoke about is something that I will treasure but the most powerful lesson that I took out of what he said today is that ‘man can only be liberated when he has overcome fear’. To put this in context, he spoke about his late friend Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr.

Dr. King Jnr. was so passionate about liberation that he didn’t fear any consequence of the fight to the attainment of it, not even death. Congressman Lewis shares the same beliefs as that of Dr. King and this is evident in his stories of how he was beaten during the Civil Movement as well as in the passion in which he spoke to us.

As mentioned earlier, I knew that I was going to be in the presence of a great man but had no idea on the impact that he would leave on me. Congressman Lewis has been arrested 40 times for standing up for a belief; he has walked next to Dr. King during the Civil Movement; spoke at the ‘I have a dream speech’ and has cried in the arms of Mr. Nelson Mandela. This great man has met the best and was beaten by the most cruel and is still so humble and passionate about liberation for all. In many ways, shapes and forms I see and truly feel that Congressman Lewis has done as much good in this world as what the greats like Dr. King and our very own Tata Mandela have done.

Today I was WOWed by a great man and realized that if we all only do 10% of the good that Congressman Lewis, Dr. King and Mr. Mandela have done, this world will be a even bigger pleasure to be part of.

It was exactly a week ago that the tired and jet-lagged SAWIP team landed in the Capital of the world, DC. On arrival, we were met by our host families and were whisked off to what we will be calling home for the next 6 weeks. After a brief rest (very brief) we all got our first taste of USA transportation in the form of the metro train or the famous yellow cab and met at "l,the mall". Nope, not a shopping mall, a massive amount of space that is in between all the famous monuments of DC. On this 3 hour walk in what felt like 50C weather and with no sleep, we got to see The White House, The Capital Building, The Lincon Memorial with the huge Abe Lincon statue, USA war memorials and the highlight for me, got to stand on the EXACT spot that the inspiring Martin Luther King Jr. stood when he delivered his "I have a dream" speech. Despite the heat, lack of sleep and 3 hour walk, there was no better way to jump start our experience of the USA. Day two was orientation and the return to some sort of sanity followed by a weekend where we got to have some down time. Saturday evening, the team had the honour of getting invited to the South African Ambassador, Ebrahim Rasool' residence where we met many DC professionals and fellow South Africans who are doing amazing work for South Africa here in DC and the whole of the USA. Sunday, being fathers day, I was up early with my "sisters" and made breakfast and then went off to hit some golf balls with "dad". Monday was the big day, our first days of the internships / work exposure (for you Kim). The combination of nerves and excitement that I experienced while on route to the World Bank was something that I will never forget. Walking around the corner and seeing the massive buildings of the "The World Bank" the only feelings I had were humbling ones. The work thus far is great, the people are great and the learning experience is beyond great. Almost done with week one of the work exposure and have 3.5 to go, I am really looking forward to it. With the aim of keeping this blog light hearted, I will end on that note. Do watch this space however, there is so much that has already happened and some amazing people that we have met like Mr. Jake Sullivan, the Director of Policy Planning for the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. More on that soon. Jason

What a journey!!! From the day that I pushed send on my application form to the camps and many group meetings that we have had in this short time, the only thing I can say is WOW!

Wow, what an amazing group of people which I have the honour to grow with,

Wow, what an amazing program structure to take leaders and make them into leaders that are going to grow this young country into something that is beyond comprehension,

Wow, what an amazing group of friends I have made, friends who always show passion for the program and for each other,

and Wow, what a great journey this is still going to be. There are many challenges that we are still going to face but with all these WOWs, there is no chance that huge success will not come from this team and program.

I thank you SAWIP, team and friends for the awesome start to an amazing program. I am honoured and look forward to the months that still lay ahead.