Student Feedback

  • Lavina Yuyada - Civil Engineering

Being a part of the WELA team this year has presented a lot of benefits to me – from making new friends from different parts of engineering to being coupled with a mentor. In this challenging field of Engineering; guidance and advice from peers is greatly appreciated. It feels so good to enter a room filled entirely with females as opposed to a lecture room filled with males. It gives us an opportunity to share our common views – WELA not only connects us but also grooms us to become the aspiring engineers of tomorrow.

 

  • Aleena Mathew - Electrical Engineering

Through WELA, I have come to understand my weaknesses and learnt ways to work around them and convert them into strengths – and then capitalise on these strengths.

 

  • Jerusha Van Den Heever - Mechatronics

WELA creates an environment where women can come together and freely share and empower each other. The highlight of my year with WELA has been the connections I have made. I would never have had the opportunity to meet most of the women in the group if it hadn’t been for this initiative. I have become more confident in myself and as a female engineer in a male-dominated workplace.

 

  • Majamana Nwabisa - Industrial Engineering

Thanks to the WELA workshops I have attended, I have changed the way I view the world. I also got the chance to meet students I never knew before and interact with women who are already in the working world. From the interactions with these women, I have received advice on how to handle various challenges on campus and in the working world. I have also learnt how to dress appropriately for a work situation as well as how to conduct myself at functions and over the internet.

 

  • Philasande Ntongana - Mechanical Engineering

Being a part of WELA has taught me that I’m not the only one who faces the fear of not being taken seriously as a female in a male-dominated profession. I have learnt how to express myself freely and confidently and lastly, I have learnt that I can achieve all the things that I set my mind to. WELA has taught me to be the best version of myself.

 

  • Mamoluko Mosomane - Civil Engineering

WELA has been an awesome stepping stone for me. Through WELA I learnt about SAWomEng and I had the opportunity to go to Cape Town as one of the selected delegates. Here I met phenomenal women in the Engineering Industry who helped in changing my views and plans for the future. If it wasn't for WELA i would not have known of a brighter future.

 

  • Pricilla Weitz - Purchasing Manager: Federal Mogul

This association is very encouraging and inspiring.

 

  • Sephiwe Dlamini - Mechanical Engineering

WELA has made me realise that we as women have to be leders of today and tomorrow. We have to care for other people while at the same time changing the world by believing in ourselves. We can do anything and have to make good choices. Success will be the reward.

 

  • Thandile Ndevu - Intern at NMMU

I am not yet born; O fill me with strenght against those who would frees my humanity, woul dragoon me into a lethal automaton, would make me a cog in a machine, a thing with one face, a thing, and against all those who would dissipate my entirety, would blow me like thistledown hither and thithe or hither and thither like water held inthe hands would spill me. Let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me. Otherwise kill me.

I chose this piece because it symbolises the fears that I have daily. Do I follow what is the norm in society or do I follow my calling? It boils down to choices. We all make choices from the moment we are born in this world. to the live, to learn, to teach, to assist and surely there are many more choices.

Recently WELA hosted 'The 7 Choices of Successful Women' workshop and with all that was said that day the word choice rang in my mind. I chose engineering because I followed my calling; I chose to attend that workshop because I hunger to grow into being a successful woman. The WELA organisation is so significant because it allows me to grow into the woman I've always wanted to be but I had always settled, settled into being a machine, a one faced vision of what I thought people wanted to see. I didn't play to my genius.

But most importantly WELA has allowed me to discover my VOICE.