|
|
|
An exceptional SHAWCO volunteer Profiled: |
My name is Gordon Inggs, I'm a 4th (and hopefully final) year Electrical and Computer Engineering Student. My academic interest is in High Performance Computing and wireless systems, which tends to lead towards sensor network technologies of some sort.
I started out as a volunteer for IT in Khayalitsha in first year. While I really enjoyed the teaching, I realised spending even more time around computers would drive me crazy. So from the outset, SHAWCO helped keep me balanced. The rather patchy admin of the project also got me thinking about how things ran, and how maybe technology could help them run better.
Towards the end of 2006, my friend Yumna, started convincing me to join the committee of the project she had just been appointed project leader to, SMART. I served on the SMART committee for the 2006-2007 leadership cycle, during which I wrote the Maths curriculum, which I also taught as a volunteer. I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed creating the curriculum material, although the workload did get a bit intense at times. The technical skills of presentation and accessibility which I learnt while writing the maths curriculum have been so important. I also learnt a lot about leadership while being on the committee, as Yumna was a very supportive leader, encouraging and enabling everyone on the committee to get involved, even beyond their portfolio.
I think its worth mentioning at this point how great SHAWCO is for socialising. You're guaranteed to meet like-minded people who have the energy and the drive to go beyond their studies to help others. Since the organisation is a mix of all of the faculties, you also get to know people from almost every discipline the university has to offer. For an engineering student, this is invaluable. Most of the friends I've made at University have been through being involved in SHAWCO.
For the 2007-2008 leadership cycle, I applied for, and got elected as Project Leader for KenSMART. KenSMART was a spin off from SMART, working in Kensington instead of Khayaleitsha. This was the first time I had ever been directly responsible for anything, and so I was extremely excited about the project. I also had a unique opportunity in that the project attracted very few committee applicants, so I convinced a few of my friends to get involved. By planning ahead, and staying active within our project (all of the committee members taught), the workload was kept to a minimum, while getting a good response from both our student volunteers and learner participants. Kensington is a very interesting and subtle community, and by forming strong relationships and keeping clear communication with our participants and their parents, the project ran smoothly. In particular we're still very excited about a group of participants from the project who we mentored and tutored, who will hopefully be coming to UCT next year.
In parallel with my tenure as project leader of KenSMART, I collaborated with a friend of mine, Min-Young Wu, to develop an Administration System for SHAWCO Education. This system essentially had to track all participants, volunteers and staff, as well as record attendance data. Making use of open source technologies and rigorous software engineering, the online Admin System was developed. The system incorporates strong elements of web 2.0 and social networking, and as such is fairly intuitive and extremely powerful. I'm really proud of it, as it is seeing widespread use across the Education sector. Not only has it improved the administration of all of the projects, but it has also allowed for decision making to be based upon real world data, which is easily retrievable. For myself, this was a priceless opportunity to apply exactly what I've been learning in lectures in the real world, where it can actually do some good.
|
|
|
|
SHAWCO, the Students’ Health and Welfare Centres Organisation, is a dynamic, innovative and passionate student-run NGO based at UCT, constantly striving to improve the quality of life for individuals in developing communities within the Cape Metropolitan area.
