By: Natasha Archary
From Soweto to the Big Apple, Siphesihle Sitole was selected for a prestigious exchange student programme.
The Soweto student was a beneficiary of the Cyril Ramaphosa Education Trust (CRET), to participate in the Fordham University Emerging Markets and Country Risk Analysis programme.
Spending 6-weeks in New York, Siphesihle is now back on home turf, with the final leg of the programme concluding in Pretoria.
The all-expenses-paid programme included upskilling graduates in Bachelor of Commerce and training them on Emerging Markets and Country Risk Analysis content.
Students were integrated in financial accounting, economics and international investments.
Sharing her experience, Siphesihle Sitole said she’s looking forward to having her international classmates come to Mzansi.
“The time in the USA really opened my eyes. The American students are very different to South Africans, and they aren’t afraid to voice their opinion or discuss different points of view. A difference that stood out to me was how much history is celebrated with great fanfare and we as South Africans can learn from that.”
Siphesihle Sitole shares her experience with a prestigious exchange student programme in New York
The students will be visiting Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria, doing site visits at the SA head offices of multinational organisations.
Siphesihle aims to fully gain the advantages the programme offers.
“I believe it’ll make me stand out from the rest. We all have degrees, we have distinctions in our academic transcripts so, what makes you stand out? I’ll have this training now, and I am so looking forward to the doors it’ll open in the future.
I want to take what I’ve learnt, teach it to others and apply it in any sector where I might work. My goal is to be in the finance space, banking specifically. We’re in the fourth industrial revolution, you need to adapt to whatever is new, and I want to see the growth and development in the finance sector. This programme can help me do exactly that.”
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