The Brightest Young Minds Experience 2011

This story was published in the University of KwaZulu-Natal online newsletter UKZNOnline and on the University website.
http://enewsletter.ukzn.ac.za/Newsletter.aspx?id=45

From left: Mr Andrew Goronga, Ms Sophia Basckin, Ms Basheerah Mohamed, Mr Msawenkosi Jeffery Khumalo, Ms Xolelwa Zulu, Ms Frances Rachel Morrow, Mr Musa Kika, and Ms Aarefah Mathir.

Eight UKZN students are among South Africa’s 100 Brightest Young Minds selected by the Brightest Young Minds Organisation. The students attended the Brightest Young Minds Summit in Johannesburg from July 4-9. UKZN, the University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University had the highest number of representatives.

The eight students are: Ms Areefah Mathir, a Masters student in Chemical Engineering; final-year Bachelor of Social Science student, Ms Basheerah Mohamed;  Mr Musa Kika, first-year LLB student and the only first-year student to attend the summit; Mr Msawenkosi Jeffery Khumalo, Masters student; Ms Frances Rachel Morrow, who is studying Politics and Economics; Ms Sophia Basckin, studying Philosophy and Linguistics, Mr Andrew Goronga, a final-year Electrical Engineering student and Ms Xolelwa Zulu, a PhD student.  Six of the students are based on the Howard College campus, while one is from Pietermaritzburg and one from the Westville campuses.

The Brightest Young Minds Summit is South Africa’s premier youth summit that brings together 100 of the brightest and most passionate young minds with the view to connecting them and channelling their hearts and minds into initiatives that have a positive societal impact. They are chosen from thousands of entries from university students and young people between the ages of 20-30 from all over the country. They are selected using the criteria of innovation, leadership, and academic accomplishments. Delegates get the rare opportunity to interact and network with some of the country’s top thinkers and leaders, whilst a platform is also created for them to showcase their talents. All the UKZN students are academic high achievers and have over the years exhibited leadership and innovation through personal initiatives and association with various organisations and groups.

The theme for this year’s 11^th edition of the summit was “A Climate for Change”, focusing on perhaps the major challenge that the next generation of leaders will be faced with, that of building a carbon-free economy that is environmentally sustainable. Among the many high profile organisations and companies that the delegates engaged with were T-Systems, BMW, Pam Golding, Vodacom, X-Trata, Sasol, Unilever, Dimension Data, and leaders including Dr Yaw Afrane-Okose of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, Dr Richard Worthington of the World Wildlife Fund, Mr Stanford Masie of Novell South Africa and former CEO of Google Africa, and Dr Andrew Venter of the Wildlands Trust.  

Past alumni of the summit have included numerous Rhodes and Fulbright Scholars, entrepreneurs and the founders of successful social initiatives.