31.07.2006
The university's Pestalozzi Scholarship scheme launched in 2004 is open to students at the Pestalozzi International Village at Sedlescombe, East Sussex, who wish to go on to higher education but would be unable to do so without the support of the scheme.
The first Pestalozzi scholars (pictured below) - Sicelesile Ndlovu from Zimbabwe , studying software engineering, and Lubinda Mbundi from Zambia, studying biomedical sciences - are now well into their second year. So, has life as a Brighton student lived up to their expectations?
Both students lived in Moulsecoomb
halls for their first year, although Lubinda
has now moved into university-managed
accommodation, and both adapted
quickly to university life.
Sicelesile said: "My first year went very well and I settled in very quickly after the excellent orientation programme organised by the International Relations Office. I enjoyed my first year a lot, making new friends and getting used to being at university. Brighton is a very pleasant place to study and all the international students here make it a really multicultural community."
Lubinda too is enjoying student life, although he experienced some financial difficulties at the start of his course. (The scholarship bursary meets half the recipients' living costs and Pestalozzi scholars are expected to meet the rest of their living costs from paid employment.) Lubinda's finances got back on track in his second semester when he found paid work as a telephone interviewer in the university Careers Centre. Sicelesile also worked at the centre and now has part-time work as an IT technician at Longhill High School in Rottingdean.
The scholars are also extremely happy with the courses they chose. "I love my course and I still feel strongly that I'm studying just what I wanted", says Lubinda. "I'm happy with the organisation and administration of the course and the help students receive from university staff. I have friends at other universities, in the UK and abroad, who admire the way my course and the university are run."
"I'm particularly interested in doing an industrial placement as I think it will broaden my academic and professional strengths and my understanding of what the real world is like."
Sicelesile says she's finding her second year more challenging than the first but the course is going well. "I really enjoy programming - my core module - but I intend to specialise in network administration for further study. At the moment I'm looking forward to starting my placement year in July. I'll be working at Thermeon Europe at Gatwick where I'll be involved in developing web-based software for car rental companies."
Towards the end of last year, Lubinda and Sicelesile, with the help of some friends, started the University of Brighton Pestalozzi Society.
"We've been working hard to make our fellow students aware of the Pestalozzi Village and the marvellous work it does in sponsoring highly academic young people from disadvantaged families in Africa and Asia to study in the UK for the International Baccalaureate," explained Sicelesile. "We hope to strengthen the existing relationship between the University of Brighton and the Pestalozzi International Village Trust."
The society also organises fundraising events for Pestalozzi and in the future hopes to run international awareness programmes and promote multiculturalism.
While at the Pestalozzi Village, both students undertook voluntary work in the local community and they have tried, time permitting, to continue this. Lubinda is a volunteer helper in the diabetes department at the Royal Sussex County Hospital and Sicelesile is a member of @ctivestudent and hopes to do some volunteer work for her Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award during her placement year. She is currently a course representative, a student ambassador and was a group leader in the 2005 International Students Orientation Programme.
In their leisure time the students like meeting friends, going to the gym and just enjoying living in Brighton. For Lubinda and Sicelesile studying at Brighton is "a very enjoyable experience. We hope that future Pestalozzi scholars find it as great as we do."
See also: First Pestalozzi scholars start university life
Contact: Marketing and Communications, University of Brighton, 01273 643022
