Ms Alrasheed Mustafa, a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) student in Information Technology at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) shares her excitement upon being the recent recipient of the ‘Most Consistent Student’ award at the Vuna Leadership Award ceremony which took place at the Indumiso Campus in Pietermaritzburg.

The ceremony was held to celebrate student’s behaviour that is aligned with the values advocated in the ENVISION2030 strategy of the university. The purpose of the event was to celebrate students’ who have been participating in the Vuna Leadership Academy in 2022.

Ms Mustafa joined the Vuna Leadership Academy in August 2021.

She said that the Vuna Leadership Academy has programmes that are run weekly for the development of student leadership skills and that these programmes focus on developing and refining their personal leadership skills and gives them incredible abilities through discussion in particular topics and also sharing experiences between students. The Vuna Leadership programme also aims to help students to achieve leadership goals and address key challenges in order to shape their leadership skills.

She was awarded the Most Consistent Student award; an award that is given to a student who demonstrated commitment to attend the Vuna programmes on a weekly basis to learn from guest presenters and participate in discussions and share their experiences with other students.

Speaking on what was going through her mind when her name was called, she said “I felt so much joy and I am also so proud of the Vuna Leadership Academy and how they transform my life to a leader that has initiative with great perspective, sharing knowledge with others and also to build and make sure our communities live better. We should not just focus on academic studies.”

Ms Mustafa, through her win, also aims to motivate the future generation of DUT students and to encourage other students to be part of the Vuna Leadership Academy.

Pictured: Ms Alrasheed Mustafa with her award.

Siphokazi Dlamini