Cape Town International Airport
Thursday, 23 June 2016
Excitement, Exhilaration and Thrill!
Opportunities create spaces for learning, development and investments. I have always believed in the power of opportunities, giving the key to open doors of new knowledge, new dialogue and new ways of thinking…The time has come for yet another opportunity of learning, development and investment. I am beyond excited!
After concluding a period of proper and thoughtful planning for this absolute amazing opportunity, time has arrived to commence my journey to the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. Having a bit of a perfectionistic personality, administration such as money matters, accommodation, health, safety and travel has been done weeks before departing, checking every now and then if everything was still in place.
Preparations for studying abroad takes time- every individual who undertakes this journey should do planning quite perfect and time-specific. The biggest lesson I have learned in planning this trip, which serves as useful tips for prospective participants, are:
– Plan ahead- that is the only way to not have any kind of stress before departing. Do planning time-specific!
– ‘File-organization’- Have a file/portfolio ready to do all the planning in. This comes very handy when you have to submit documents to the consulate when doing your visa. Also make sure to have copies of every document in a separate file ready, in case something fails.
– Once you receive successful confirmation of your application, get into contact with the host university. This makes traveling and organizing accommodation so much easier!
– Do some research on the university you are visiting, the city, the course framework and history complimenting your city and university before departing- this makes dialogue so much easier from the beginning of your journey abroad!
– Save during planning by planning smartly- invest in buying things like dried food, plugs, stationary etc. before departing. It really helps!
By looking at this prospective opportunity, I am looking forward to opportunities in which new knowledge frameworks can be discovered and at the same time, welcoming new ways of thinking. With an outlook to take part in a global pool of knowledge, shared and undiscovered, I am indeed standing on the edge of new learning experiences and exciting social expectations. At the same time, I am also looking forward to days of exploring and getting to know the cultural, social and academic experiences of Berliners.
To new adventures, experiences and exciting times! Berlin, here I come!
Unter de Linden Street, Berlin
8 July 2016
Coming to the end of the second week of the Summer School experience 2016, numerous lessons ha
s gone into my academic journey and exciting adventures have joined in on this amazing experience! Thus far, we have dealt with an overview of the development and contemporary realities and issues regarding cities as centers of knowledge production. Looking at various dynamic influences, starting from history, education, politics and economics, the participants in this program were able to conceptualize the framework in which the theory and perspectives establishes itself.
The instructor in this course, Professor Reinhard Isensee brought various questions of interpretation to the content which serves as a framework in understanding the issues at hand. Having a collection of thoughtful prescribed readings and objectives, I have learned that the way we trying to understand the complexities of contemporary issues, should start by questioning terminology and influences on these issues.
Furthermore, the academic program has been filled with responses and presentations from the participants acting to the various texts that served as part of the syllabus of the course. These presentations and responses also led a global conversation in many directions, questioning the influences on the issues in these texts. I very much enjoyed being part of a global pool of individuals bringing their different disciplines together in one conversation. Having being exposed to so much input and deep-developed talks about the spheres of Education, Politics, History and Economics, taught me not to only voice an opinion about contemporary issues in the modern society we live in, but taking individual lived experiences, historical moments and global comparisons to articulate a specific opinion.
Part of the syllabus was to visit a few places of knowledge, which perfectly fit into the framework of the course, having conversation about the realities and challenges that different settings as part of a city gives to the development of a city into a global and knowledgeable one.
Comparing this experience to what I’ve experienced thus far at the University of Stellenbosch, the major difference seems to be the global nature of disciplines coming together from various schools around the world in a summer school experience, while being absent in a rather linear academic conversation at the US. Being able to have continuous comparisons around educational, political, historical and economic backgrounds, bring a dynamic aspect to teaching and learning in this context. Entering a pool of shared educational philosophies, practices of education and national historic experiences between the various participants, makes the emergence of knowledge possible and an experience, so rich to learn from…
Tegel International Airport, Berlin
Saturday- 16 July 2016
Reflecting on the past three absolute blissful weeks, has to commence by talking about the vibrant, developing, rich-historic and dynamic city Berlin has been and still is. Always changing and evolve into an even more dynamic knowledge city! I have stood, numerously, astonished to see development in different spheres happening so continuously.
The experience at Humboldt has changed the way I think about the spheres of History, Education, Politics and Economics immensely. The way I gather meaningful opinions to articulate how these spheres interchangeably work together has even more so changed my outlook on life as a whole. Having experienced a wide range of social activity together with the academic program itself, has showed me ways of how cultural diversity plays a vital and crucial role in global conversation and the internationalization of education. As part of a global participant in this program, has also shifted the way I think about global education and how education has become a phenomenon in which international perspectives are core in understanding the way education influences the opinions we voice.
Thinking about an academic future, I would definitely consider studying abroad in the near future. This experience as such, gave rise to so much (curiousness) regarding my own field of studying that I really would love to (dig) into in future. Having been exposed to various encounters in the field of Education, created a platform in which I would invest to foster growth in this field. Not only have these pedagogical encounters made a huge difference in the way I think about Education and what informs the way Education is constituted, but it also made me realize how much more I can learn in a global pool of individuals coming from different disciplines.
Being on this journey back to my home university is rather a bittersweet one. (Sad) as I am to leave vibrant and dynamic Berlin, I am also looking forward in using this vast collective of academic power to encourage future conversation in the different disciplines that we live in. Debates, organic conversations and educational encounters are worth looking for, especially in the spaces we as students of a revolutionary generation found ourselves in. As I am preparing myself for a new semester looking awfully dark, I find that this darkness can now be turned into newly reformed sunshine, giving growth to the academic seeds in this new semester.
I thank the University of Stellenbosch, the Postgraduate International Office (with their respective staff) and every individual making this opportunity happen. The lifelong lessons will long not be forgotten, the investment will long be remembered and the experience highly cherished…