Stenden's biggest crop
JON HOUZET
STENDEN South Africa's largest graduating class yet celebrated the end of three years of study last week and looked ahead to bright futures.
Twenty-six students graduated with either a BCom in hospitality management or a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), by adding a fourth year to their studies.
Stenden SA also reached another milestone in April as it celebrated its 10th anniversary.
| FINISHED AT LAST: Nonkie Nkohla (centre), with her mom Winnie and brother Phila, was among the 26 graduates who graduated with a hospitality management degree from Stenden South Africa last Thursday Picture: JON HOUZET |
Stenden University's hospitality programme is 25 years old, and the university now has campuses in Thailand, Bali and Qatar.
Stenden SA recently took over management of My Pond Hotel, which has become a "learning hotel", making it possible to put theory into practice, said Klaassen. This contributed to Stenden's ethos of "real world learning".
The graduation ceremony was held at My Pond Hotel's upstairs conference room and afterwards guests were treated to a smorgasbord of the excellent culinary fare prepared by students working at the hotel.
"What you've learned at Stenden is the basis for your development in the rest of your life," Klaassen told the graduating class. "Learning continues throughout your life."
Adrian Gardiner, chief executive of the Mantis Collection and chairman of the Stenden board of governors, told students they were the roadmap to their future.
"You have international connections. Take advantage of that," he said.
Gardiner revealed he had sold the jewel in the Mantis Collection, Shamwari Game Reserve, to the government of Dubai and together with them had replicated the Shamwari model in other African countries.
He said he had sold Shamwari to the Dubai government "to protect the land and our conservation ethic. Everyone knows the issues with colonial land distribution."
He also said Mantis was about to open its fourth hotel in Nigeria.
"Some of you might say, 'What the hell is he doing in Nigeria?' I'm ashamed to say I (once) had the same opinion," said Gardiner, who also has plans to do something in India.
| EXHORTING GRADUATES: Adrian Gardiner (left), chief executive of the Mantis Collection and chairman of the Stenden board of governors, and Wouter Hensens, Stenden SA academic dean and general manager, enjoyed socialising after the graduation ceremony for the class of 2012 at My Pond Hotel last Thursday Picture: JON HOUZET |
"We're in a recession that shows no signs of ending," he said. "In a recession, people move politically to the left and the right, to polarising extremes. It's happening in Holland too."
As has become custom, Hensens said something personal about each member of the graduating class, often injecting some good-natured ribbing, before they were capped and handed their certificates.
He told the BBA graduates he could not confer their certificates at the ceremony but they received colours "as a symbol of our intention that you have done the work to earn that degree".
For one of the graduates, Nonkie Nkohla, it was long-delayed gratification getting her degree.
While attending Port Alfred High School, Nkohla bussed tables at the erstwhile Barnacles, where her mother Winnie was also employed.
"That's where I fell in love with hospitality," she said, and Stenden was the natural place to go after high school.
In Nkohla's third year, her mom also became part of the Stenden family, working in the kitchen while her daughter was studying.
"Straight after my internship in Johannesburg I started working at the Isango Gate Boutique Hotel in Port Elizabeth," said Nkohla.
"I've been there two years and I never got around to coming back here till now. Administrative delays, to put it mildly," she said. "I feel relieved - that Mount Everest has been lifted."
"I'm very proud of my daughter," said mom Winnie.
