STELLALANDER-VRYBURG: A fourth-year Diagnostic Radiography student, Abigail van den Berg, received the prestigious 2024 Abe Bailey Travel Bursary and is scheduled to travel at the end of November 2024.
Van den Berg is a former Gr 12 learner and Deputy Head girl at Kismet Secondary School in Vryburg. She has been a learner at Kismet School since Grade 1. Van den Berg explains that it all started when she was nominated by the Faculty of Health and Environmental sciences as a candidate for the Abe Bailey Travel bursary.
It was a bit of a shock at first, because she was not really aware of the opportunity nor what goes with it. When applying for the bursary, she found that the last CUT student to win the award, was in 2018 and that just made her more eager to apply. She sent her application in, with a CV, letter of motivation on why they should choose her. Van den Berg was then chosen to give a presentation of herself and her achievements to the Deans of The Central University of Technology, where they only chose three students. From there they competed against 26 other universities through online interviews and then Van den Berg was chosen as one of the 16 candidates. She said it was a very unique experience, not like any other normal interview. They discussed global topics from political stand points to cultural issues in a way to grasp each candidates view point. The final tour group members are a diverse group of many professions from universities all over South Africa. She said she is really honoured to be able to have participated in the selection process and is grateful for all the support and guidance she received from the Central University of Technology as well as her family and friends.
“It’s an exciting experience and I cannot wait for what’s still to come,” she said. Van den Berg will participate in this three-week programme, which includes a tour of the United Kingdom, engagement with influential leaders, and other activities designed to broaden their understanding of global issues and leadership. The Abe Bailey Travel Tour is highly based on certain values that are beautiful. Their main objective is to broaden the views of young South Africans as well as to effect greater co-operation and understanding of different viewpoints and opinions among those with various language and cultural backgrounds and to demonstrates leadership and mutual respect of each other and to promote South African unity. She also started giving Supplementary Instruction (SI) classes to first year radiography students in Radiation Physics and have been working at Dr Spies and Partners at Rosepark Hospital in Bloemfontein since 2021 whilst studying. “So students should really not doubt themselves, they’re wildly capable of doing so much. With God all things are possible- Mathew 19:26,” Van den Berg concluded
