Samantha Naidoo’s (21) journey at DUT is one full of happiness and elated joy. The dynamic lass had graduated Cum Laude with her qualification in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Business Analysis at the Durban University of Technology on 22 May 2024.

“I’m most proud of myself. Having secretly wanted to graduate  Cum Laude when I had first heard about it. I’m ecstatic and over the moon that when I first saw the result Cum Laude on the portal, I literally screamed for joy,” she professed.

Naidoo proudly acknowledged her DUT lecturers of being extremely caring, motivational, and hard-working role models and aspires to be just as career- focused and motivational as they were.

For Naidoo, IT was never her first choice of study but she grow to love it all thanks to her father.

“I had wanted to choose marine biology, but I did not get accepted for it. I got accepted for IT and as I had begun to study and research about it I slowly fell in love with it,” she confessed.

She explained that some of the simple challenges that one takes for granted were a challenge to her like having to find a safe and reliable transportation from where she had lived to DUT.

“It was a never-ending struggling till the end. It’s quite funny I found myself laughing and thinking back on how many times I changed transports or found new people and of others just like me who were trying to find a way to travel. When we had returned to the classrooms at DUT, I remembered how scared I was, thinking that in person it would be tougher with no recordings for lessons. Nevertheless, as I wrote each and every test I was amazed as I had continued to excel in my studies,” she said.

Naidoo excitedly added that after all her families had come to know of her amazing acquirement and that had led to her receiving many well wishes from people she was not even aware had cared about her.

“I am very grateful and feel so blessed that my grandad is overjoyed.

“I wanted to proudly say that Henry Hellen and Ambie Munsamy’s granddaughter did it.  To my mother who had first raised me as a single parent before meeting my father, mum I did it! You had struggled not for nothing. To my father who had taken me in, and despite our financial situations bought me a laptop just so I could better my life and education, thank you,” she replied proudly.

Her words she had imparted to future students was that challenges were part of the journey and to not be afraid of them. “The sun always rose the next day. Speaking from the other side I can tell you that hard work and prayer paid off and was truly rewarding,” she said.

Naidoo is currently working at Harpan Technologies as a junior ICT Business Analyst.

Pictured: Samantha Naidoo

Waheeda Peters