Stenden welcomes back students
Hensens ‘determined and very hopeful’ first years will enjoy the full experience
Stenden South Africa welcomed back students at its academic opening at the Royal St Andrews Hotel on Monday evening, and also presented awards to students who excelled last year.
In his annual review, executive dean Dr Wouter Hensens said: “I’m so done with online. We were excited about it at first, that we could continue learning, but after two years we all realised something is missing – the Stenden culture.”
Hensens said he had always had one foot in academia and the other in business, which was necessary as the industry dictated what skills academia needed to produce.
“As much as I love being in academia, the part of me that stands in the real world has been crying over the past two years,” Hensens said.
He said the Stenden culture – being together – involved developing character, a work ethic, the ability to work as a team, solving problems together and developing a moral compass.
“I’m determined and very hopeful that the first years will have the full Stenden experience,” he said.
“To the second and third years, let’s catch up what we missed.”
He said Stenden was looking forward to entering hotel school competitions again, and was the only hotel school in Africa that had been invited to an international summit on the hospitality industry.
Stenden’s disaster management school was in a class of its own, he said, as there were not many in the world.
He hoped that by the first week of May, big groups of Dutch and German students would start arriving at the Port Alfred campus in the Grand Tour programme. “It adds to the diversity we need,” he said.
He also anticipates students visiting from Auburn University in Alabama, in the US.
He said Stenden was a caring community and put emphasis on excellence in education, as well as values like trust.
He exhorted the students to “challenge yourself, get out of your comfort zone, initiate your ideas, always do more than what is required, practice leadership, take responsibility for yourself and for each other”.
Before handing out the prizes, there were also speeches by hotel management school dean Dr Juliet Chipumuro and disaster management school dean Dr Des Pyle.
Chipumuro said despite the pandemic’s challenges, Stenden continued to have a high absorption rate, with 97% of its graduates finding jobs.
Last year, about 75% already had jobs by the time of graduation.
She spoke about the importance of integrity, “uncompromising strong moral principles that you refuse to change, being honest and truthful in all areas of your life”.
She said ill-treating others and misrepresenting yourself were the opposite of integrity.
Pyle related a story of when he tried for five years to win the geography prize in high school, before finally succeeding.
“You won’t always win the prize,” he said, “but nothing is impossible if you set yourself a goal and work hard to achieve it.”
He said disaster management students had a lot to look forward to this year. “Real world learning will be full-steam ahead. We’re going back to pre-Covid, not the ‘new normal’,” he said.
SRC vice-president ChienChien Wu said the current SRC had worked well together since its inauguration in June last year.
Among its initiatives were a student-teaching platform where students could help each other, and soccer matches with 43 Air School students.
Students also shared in making meals, with plans to reintroduce this.
She said the SRC hosted multiple beach walks, beach clean-ups, and visits to the SPCA and a children’s day care centre, among others initiatives.