Dreaming beyond stereotypes
Kheswa defied a disadvantaged background to achieve great things
As a young man, Vincent Kheswa was led to believe that he would not succeed in life because of his disadvantaged background, but his positive, can-do mentality drove him to pursue his dreams.
“Coming from an underprivileged background, we were often told that we will amount to nothing and will never make it in life because of our circumstances,” Kheswa said.
“But [I had the] mentality and hope to pursue dreams beyond stereotypes.”
Kheswa holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in Business Mathematics and Informatics (BMI) which he obtained at North-West University in 2010.
He said he realised his passion lay in mathematics during high school days at Residensia Secondary in Sebokeng. He would use what was considered the “difficult” methods of solving mathematical equations rather than the simple methods provided by his teacher and he would still get the same answer as the teacher.
“My love for mathematics is what led me to study BMI and become a maths teacher after, as well as a mathematics project coordinator for an NGO before I joined Standard Bank.”
Kheswa currently work as a model implementation analyst at the Standard Bank.
He is also the founder of several campaigns. One is called Simply Vincent, which aims to inspire young people to discover their purpose in life through various projects that teach leadership such as seminars, corporate presentations, education, music, books and articles.
He also started a campaign called The BMI Student Marketing with the aid of NorthWest University and Absa. He said the purpose of the campaign was to open doors to young underprivileged pupils who performed well in mathematics and reward them with bursaries to study BSc in business mathematics and informatics.
“The campaign was a great success and we rewarded a lot of young people who are now young professionals in this field and are doing a great job earning great salaries.”
The 28-year-old from the Vaal is also a poet, a writer, a speaker, a songwriter, recording artist and a teacher. He had stint lecturing at Sedibeng College in Vanderbijlpark. Kheswa recently launched a project titled The Good News Injection which consists of a book and a musical soundtrack of 12 songs.
“Most of young people are facing problems on a daily basis which they do not have an idea of how to tackle, or who to turn to.
“[What] The Good News Injection project does is to give the mind the remedy that it needs in a form of knowledge provided through reading and music,” he said.
Kheswa has also published The Good News Injection digitally which is freely accessible on social media.
selepen@sowetan.co.za
We rewarded a lot of people who are now professionals