Monash South Africa student awarded prestigious Mandela Rhodes Scholarship

November 2008

Unnel-Teddy Ngoumandjoka

Monash South Africa has announced that, for the first time, one of its students, Unnel-Teddy Ngoumandjoka, has been awarded a prestigious Mandela Rhodes Scholarship for 2009.

Unnel-Teddy, who is from Libreville, Gabon, is a final year student in the Monash South Africa School of Information Technology. He is double majoring in Computing and Business Systems and plans to undertake a Bachelor of Computing (Honours) programme at Monash South Africa next year.

“We are very proud and thrilled that one of our students has been awarded this Scholarship and congratulate Unnel-Teddy on his achievement,” said Prof Dina Burger, Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor: Research, at Monash South Africa. “We hope that many more Monash South Africa students, who share the vision of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation, will be awarded this scholarship in the years ahead.”
During his first two years in South Africa Unnel-Teddy had a Gabon Government bursary and attended an English language school in Johannesburg then completed the Foundation Programme at Monash South Africa and, after achieving excellent academic results, was awarded a Monash Scholarship to continue with his undergraduate degree.
Unnel-Teddy said: “I am very excited and feel privileged and honoured to be the recipient of this very prestigious Mandela Rhodes scholarship which was awarded to 30 students from the African continent for 2009. I realise that it will open up lots of new opportunities for me. Since I was in High School I have had a dream of a united African continent without violence and wars.”
He added that: “I have committed myself to furthering my education because I realise that a good leader needs a strong educational background. To me leading is all about thinking and taking actions – the results of which will benefit the whole society, even in generations to come.”
“In the future I hope to be in some sort of managerial or leadership role and receiving this scholarship has made me even more determined to work towards making a positive contribution to a way forward for the African continent.”