MSc student awarded prestigious Mandela Rhodes Scholarship

Former Stirling High School pupil Francisca Darkoh’s academic prowess and commitment to personal and sporting success have secured her a Mandela Rhodes Scholarship for 2024, administered by the Mandela Rhodes Foundation which is one of Nelson Mandela’s three official legacy projects.

The scholarship funds tuition and registration fees, study materials, research, medical aid, accommodation, meals, personal and travel allowance. The scholarship includes a programme to help students in their studies.

A student at Stellenbosch University, Darkoh comes from a family that has struggled greatly financially and she has become used to hustling.

Taking inspiration from her Ghanaian mother, she has applied for a host of bursaries and established three businesses while studying — from offering personal training sessions to fellow students, to selling Jollof — a traditional rice dish.

She is enrolled for an MSc in physiological sciences.

She initially came to

Stellenbosch University on a sports scholarship, as she has been playing hockey at national level since U16.

During this time, she excelled in her studies and fulfilled several leadership roles.

Her biggest setback, however, came in the middle of her BSc honours year, when she was hospitalised for months at a time for sepsis. She suffered a partial foot amputation undergoing six surgeries over five months.

“Fortunately, the physiotherapist taught me to walk again just before graduation, so that I could walk over the stage by myself.”

She is now focusing her research on sepsis, with the hope of making a significant contribution to early diagnosing and detection. The title of her dissertation is “Characterising hemostatic and vascular blood parameters in systemic inflammatory processes during sepsis: a multidimensional analysis”.