Stellenbosch University's (SU) Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert Institute for Student Leadership Development (FVZS) has further strengthened its ties with other universities by presenting the short course, Leadership through Community Interaction, to the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and Monash.
This course is presented in collaboration with Maties Community Service (MGD). The first session kicked off on Thursday 14 May 2015 with an interactive telematic connection and students from Monash, UJ and SU participated.
Dr Leslie van Rooi, head of the FVZS Institute and Ms Michelle Pietersen from MGD will within the next few weeks travel to Johannesburg where the course will be concluded over a weekend. The themes to be addressed are centred around community development, principles of community interaction and ethical leadership.
"A strong need for this course was expressed by UJ and Monash as well as Wits some time ago. However, we had to work hard to adapt the course content to enable us to fully address the needs of these institutions," says Van Rooi.
Since its introduction to SU students in 2010 by SU and MGD, this course has proved very successful and popular. The target group are student volunteers who want to do community service.
"Research has shown that students who become involved with community interaction as volunteers have the graduate attributes institutions of higher learning expect from their graduates," says Pietersen.
"SU has a well-structured course and programme through which community work is done. Community interaction is also well entrenched in the university's leadership structures and there are relevant portfolios in the house committees and the Student Representative Council.
"UJ and Monash do not yet have structures which are as solid as ours. The aim of the course is that the student volunteers will enter leadership structures and on completion continue to contribute to the establishment of commumnity interaction principles."
Van Rooi adds: "It is a huge milestone for us when students from outside the Western Cape participate in our courses. We are proud when this happens. In this case we use a mixed-model to present this course.
"We are also working towards presenting more of our courses outside of Stellenbosch. We are not only looking at institutions in the Western Cape or Gauteng, but also elsewhere in Africa and even in other African countries."
