2016-02-15Staff Report 2 Keetmanshoop Six students will this year become the first graduates of Unam Southern campus since its inception in 2014. Addressing students and staff at the start of the new academic year on Wednesday assistant Pro-Vice Chancellor Dr Erold Naomab proudly showed off the first students expected to graduate from the institute in May. All six will be awarded diplomas in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Management. Naomab requested the prospective graduates present at the event to stand up and present themselves as the crowd gave them a huge round of applause to appreciate their historic achievement. Naomab was also happy that the students have decided to carry on with their studies and have not chosen any institution other than the southern Unam campus. “It’s more remarkable that the six students will continue to study further and have enrolled for full-time BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration) degrees and will stay here at the southern campus,” he said. One of the first graduates to be, Kaurivi Hivirikee, said he is happy and proud to be part of the history-making group. He said he can hardly wait to put on his graduation gown. “We are the pioneering students of the campus, so its history in the making. It’s a great feeling,” he said. Hivirikee hopes that the graduation ceremony will be held at Keetmanshoop and not Windhoek, so as to inspire local students to follow suit and pursue their dreams. He said it was no easy road, because “its tough out there,” as he advised fellow students to take their education seriously and keep pushing no matter the circumstances, adding that at tertiary level it is a matter of survival of the fittest. Irvinne Simataa, the general manager of Skorpion Zinc Mine and Refinery, also had some words of encouragement for the students, as he urged them to pursue success in their chosen fields. He said students have the opportunities to grow and succeed at the southern campus and should grab the opportunity with both hands, pointing out that students today have better opportunities to be successful in life and in their carreers than was the case in the past. “You have better opportunities to succeed than we had. Possibility is a norm not luck, so there is no excuse not to succeed,” he told the assembled students. 2016-02-15Staff Report 2
