I am Tshepang Motsetse, from Vereeniging a town just south of Johannesburg. I grew up in quite a supportive family that constantly reminded me that the only limits were the sky and my confidence within myself. Â Being the second child out of a family of three children, I had to learn how to adopt a resilient approach to life.
As much as I give a lot of credit to my family to supporting all my dreams, a large part of my confidence in myself stems from my secondary school career. St Michael’s School for Girls, Bloemfontein, has taken a lot of care to nurture young ladies like myself to take on the world with no remorse and that is exactly what I plan on doing in the actuarial profession. After a lot of tears and hard work I matriculated, from St Michaels with eight distinctions.
My interest in a Mathematical-orientated career began when I started entering Mathematics Olympiads just to fill some of my time in the afternoons. It was then I realised that Mathematics was not actually a pain in my life.
So, after this realisation I began researching careers related to Mathematics and came across Actuarial Science.
I decided to pursue Actuarial Science, not only for my love of Mathematics but also because it seems like an integral part of society. Actuaries do a lot of work behind the scenes that might seem almost mythical however it is quite important to model the future environment and given the unpredictable nature of the future protect business concerned with the future from financial volatility.
The South African Actuaries Development Programme (SAADP) along with FASSET have been very instrumental thus far in my journey at the University of the Witwatersrand. The bursary opportunity has provided me with so much support beyond the financial support. There are numerous measures to help you succeed. The SAADP coordinator at Wits is always ready to help address any academic concern. The programme also provides a network for you to connect with Actuarial Science students in higher years who are always ready to give you advice on how to approach certain academic challenges. Overall SAADP is very beneficial to me as a student in more ways than one.
Being a student is quite challenging as there are a lot of things we have to navigate, in the name of independence. The first few months of university were quite overwhelming for me but there are a lot of opportunities to better yourself and plenty more opportunities to ask for help. What I have found to be the greatest help is having a more balanced lifestyle and spending a bit of time on my hobbies such as painting and reading fictional books.
