Supporting education through scholarships

Virusha Pather shares her role supporting young people to further their eduction. 

Virusha is a scholar coordinator for Make a Difference Leadership Foundation. The organization works in the education and scholarship sector awarding comprehensive scholarships to young people who show leadership potential. Virusha specialized in research and psychology after completing her undergraduate and honors degree at the university of Cape Town in South Africa. She provides psychosocial support and education in her role while working with young people. Part of her goal is to address mental health stigmas and find ways for psycho-education to reach the communities who need it the most.   

Transcript

0:31

Virusha is a scholar coordinator for make a difference leadership foundation. The organization works in the education and scholarship sector awarding comprehensive scholarships to young people who show leadership potential and financial needs. Virusha specialized in research and psychology after completing her undergraduate and honors degree at the university of Cape town in South Africa. She provides psycho social support and education in her role while working with young people. Part of her goal is to address mental health stigmas and find ways for psycho-education to reach the communities who need it the most. Virusha's passion lies as advocacy for marginalized groups and creating spaces for these communities to be able to share their own narratives.

Emma: 1:18

Hi Virusha. Thanks so much for joining me today. How are you doing?

Virusha: 1:22

I'm doing well, thank you for inviting me for this interview. No, no problem.

Emma: 1:26

It's a pleasure to have you, would you like to introduce yourself to us?

Virusha: 1:32

Yes. So I'm Virusha I'm from South Africa and I'm currently based in Cape town where I'm working for a non-profit organization that is called Make a Difference leadership foundation. We specifically are focused in the education sector and deal with scholarships for university and high school students. I am someone who, well, in the time I do have to spare, I do enjoy reading and watching movies. And then I'm also a little bit into creating art of any sort if I can get the time to do so.

Emma: 2:13

Oh wow yeah. I see the artwork behind you. Is that part of your artwork or your family's artwork?

Virusha: 2:22

Um, I don't think I'm that yet but this is something that my mom had gotten painted.

Emma: 2:29

And, and how did you get into the work that you're currently doing? Is this something that you've always been passionate about, in the education sector?

Virusha: 2:39

Well, I think it wasn't definitely a plan. When I was actually studying, I was at UCT, so I was at the University of Cape Town. I was doing my undergrad degree there and I was doing a bachelor of social science, specializing in psychology and sociology. At the time I was applying for my honors as well. I was looking into other options that I might have. And I had been someone who required a scholarship for university in order to really get through the period of studying. So I think definitely for me, it was a very real life circumstance that I had experienced. And then I was given the opportunity after I did my honors in psychology. The following year I was invited to come for an interview at this organization for an opening that they had for a scholar coordinator. So, I just went with it really from there. And after really seeing the scope of what the job required, I was actually quite happy to turn the company.

Emma: 3:44

And what does your job look like day to day? What are sort of the typical activities that you're involved in?

Virusha: 3:52

So I am specifically working in the scholar support unit, which means that I work in a multidisciplinary team that works with social workers, previous teachers, counselors, and others who specialized, like me, in having a background in psychology. Basically what we do is that we are the direct contact between the organization and the scholars. So we have a caseload where each of us are given a number of scholars in different regions all over South Africa, because we are nationally based and we basically create relationships with them and sort of do psychosocial support. Where we can sort of monitor and see how they doing. And then from that relationship, if we do start to see any interactions that make from certain interactions, if any signs of needing the extra support, then we do a referral process to a professional. So that could be a health professional when it comes to therapy or seeing a psychiatrist and other type of specialists. And then we also have section where we interact with the schools. So we sort of form a relationship with the school where a scholar might be, and that allows us to do academic interventions. So as a scholarship it's obviously about marks. So by having interactions with the school we're able to really see if there is a struggle with a scholar in any specific subject or course, and then be able to intervene with an academic intervention, whether it's in an educational psychologist, applying for concessions that might help because of some sort of specific sort of thing that brought up like maybe extra reading time or needing a scribe, et cetera, we sort of help organize that and extra lessons that you might need or tutoring. So those are sort of the two sections we have. And then I do a lot of admin. So on the admin side, because there's scholarship, there's a lot of payments that have to go through. So part of my job is just ensuring that all the different offerings that we have with tuition, stationary, textbooks, extracurriculars, uniform, or transport, et cetera, and on a monthly basis process those payments and ensure that, you know, we keep those going so that we don't have any stress on our scholars or students. Yeah.

Emma: 6:24

Great. Oh, that sounds like really great work and kind of a mix of admin and working with the scholars and things like that. And so do you do a lot of traveling as well in your job if the foundation is all across South Africa?

Virusha: 6:39

Yes, so across South Africa, we have at the moment around close to 400 scholars. And what we actually do is because we are building these relationships with these different schools and these different scholars, twice a year, what we do is actually travel to every school, to meet with our scholars in person so that we can really do a really proper in-person check. Cause a lot of the time our interactions are phone calls or a zoom meeting with COVID now I think everyone's become a little bit more comfortable with having, meetings online, so that has helped. And then it also gives us the opportunity to meet with whether it's the principal or teachers in person so that we can get more detail or feedback from them. And then the second part of traveling that we do is that we are also in leadership organizing. So we have that focus, which is on your education, the other focus, which is on your mental health and any psychosocial support. And then lastly, we have our support programs and our leadership programs is basically where we have speakers come in or we have facilitation from someone in the team. And we have those done normally in our biggest cities. So we have it in Cape Town, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. However, if we can have in our smaller provinces, where we have our smaller groups, we do travel as well, three times a year to them to sort of have that in-person sort of interaction and groups or to have soft skills, training and discussions.

Emma: 8:22

It's a lot of traveling. Is that, is that something you enjoy? Do you like the travel or do you prefer to be based

Virusha: 8:28

nearer home? It was very exciting at first. I think when I first started it was very exciting having an opportunity to travel and also see South Africa. Um, and I think after a while you might get a little tired of the traveling and it gets quite stressful, I think as well to keep up with the admin and the travel. But I will say the travel is worth it to see the scholars in-person. And form those relationships and connections. So I think it's worth the amount of champion.

Emma: 9:01

Yeah that makes sense. And and we met during an SDG training workshop and streams of events. And how do you think either through your work or before, do you see the value and the importance of education and quality education and building and getting to a more sustainable future?

Virusha: 9:26

For me personally, I think coming from South Africa and the history that we have with apartheid and sort of the long-term effects of that oppression and marginalization education specifically for me is I think one of the most important opportunities that you can give to young people specifically to uplift them from the circumstances that they might be from. And I think in an overall way, when we do look at the SDG goals, when looking at a quality education, it's really about giving people the resources or knowledge they need with whether it be in sustainability, in the environment about understanding themselves and who they are, or even going further. When we look at the idea of higher education and the type of job opportunities there might be. So coming from that background of being from South Africa, definitely think for me having access to a higher education and coming from a community that has experienced that racial inequality, I am able to see sort of the awareness and enlightenment in a way of having that access to education and having a better understanding, not just of maybe people around you and society and how it works, but of your self as well. And I think why not invest in people. As much as the other SDGs are going into communication, having better ties with other countries, we're looking at accessibility to other sort of resources. I think when we look at human beings and as a society we go, I think education is so important. Working in the field myself, I think you really see the huge impact it can have on an individual long term. Obviously a lot of people want to help wherever they can. And it is quite difficult when you look at whether it's charity or volunteering, et cetera. When you're trying to put in time, a lot of it is quite short term based, but when it comes to education and really being able to to help someone build a future for themselves. You start to see the long-term effect of that, not just for them, but also it gives them an opportunity. If just say they are able to access, having a job or even a better job where, you know, they're able to really also increase their standard of living, which will impact then the family around. Yeah. Well,

Emma: 11:53

thank you for that. And something that we've also talked about is gender equality and your work, and an input into that. So thinking about maybe your work, your experiences, and also thinking about the world of work and how we can make that more sustainable, what are your views in terms of gender equality and how we can work towards that SDG that goal as well?

Virusha: 12:17

So having met with you on the sort of workshops and interactions we had with the delegation we were part of I specifically had joined the female Changemakers track. And for me that was an opportunity really to speak about my passion when it comes to gender inequality that we experience. And I think is that obviously as a female yourself, it's an everyday experience that you might have with that's sexism, or it's just sort of those smaller interactions. But I think when we start to looking at it on a bigger level, you know, there's so much that's happening that is more institutionalized and then socialized into how we actually act and treat each other. So for me, that's something that's been really, something I've experienced and then obviously studying psychology and sociology really seeing that impact as well in South Africa, especially. From a local point and even globally, the amount of women or young females who are getting that access to education is so much lower compared to male counterparts. And I think specifically when I look at my organization that I work for we have a higher amount of females who we have been trying to, you know, give access to and scholarships to, to have more opportunities. And I think that also shows you sort of the presentation of who needs the scholarships or coming forward to say that, you know, they want to be part of an organization like ours. And then I also think it's really amazing that the organization I work for is actually all female at the moment. So from our CEO to finance, to our scholar support unit, everyone, and the environment that has been created for me is one that is working with women and empowering and supporting each other in our goals as an organization. So that has been really amazing, especially as a first job to experience out of university. I think it is a sort of environment that really is enjoyable, but also it gives me the opportunity to create sort of a safe environment to learn.

Emma: 14:31

Being on the female change-maker track was there anything that you took away from that or any sort of key lessons that you learned or things that stuck in your mind from being

Virusha: 14:41

there? I think a lot of the time coming from different countries, we expect to have very different experiences, obviously having different cultures, communities, and backgrounds. And I think for my specific, the group had track hours and the most amazing part of it was that a lot of us have those similar experiences, some were bad, but some were also really good. And that actually gives you sort of that positivity and hope for the experiences that other women might have when they started into the workplace or start to study. And I think the other thing that was really important was actually meeting the people and hearing their backgrounds, what they've overcome and what they've been able to achieve. Everyone had really amazing stories, as I'm sure you also sort of connected with other people in the program that we were on and being able to hear about women who are doing so much, whether it is their own sort of work or projects, or just learning about sort of what they're involved in and their passions. I think it definitely gives you. A nice group of people who you connect with, who care as much as you do about the same sort of SDGs and passions that you have.

Emma: 15:59

It is amazing hearing different stories. And as you say, hearing what people have had to overcome and what they're working on now very inspirational as well. And, and the work you're doing too fits into that, exactly. So it's great to be able to chat more with you more about it. And so going back to working in the education sector and the scholarship sector, do you have any tips or advice that maybe you would have given yourself when you first started this job or for someone who's maybe looking at education more generally and looking for a, to form a career in the sector, any sort of tips or advice you could think of?

Virusha: 16:38

I think it's really important, especially if you're still studying, is that when you look at the nonprofit sector, I think overall there are so many different specializations of how you can help and invest in helping whether its communities or different projects or sort of goals that people are trying to lead with us within your country or globally. And I think it's really important to know yourself first and really understand what it is that you want to invest in. Because I think making a career out of it is something that's much more long-term. So as much as you would want to try out a lot of things, if you don't have a love for it, a nonprofit might not be the place for you. It's a lot of work and you have to enjoy the work that you do. And more importantly there's not a lot of money. It's about fundraising and about gaining more opportunities as much as possible. So a lot of the time it does give you the positive side, which is that you get to do more than expected of just maybe your specific role. So for me personally, even though I work in the scholar support unit if we have any events and our fundraising and marketing team needs, you know, we step in and we do help them, which means that we able to get that opportunity with how many veterans, how fundraising works and the interactions you have, and the same would go for our social media team or anyone else where if you can be hands on and support them, you know, you're going to take on that role as well. I think the down side that I specifically find in non-profits is that because there's a lot of need and you are spread quite thinly there is the reality of feeling burnout. And I think that's something that you have to manage really well. And I think specifically for me, working with young people who come from vulnerable or marginalized backgrounds, the other thing is really to manage your own mental health so that you can support others. And I think when you are working for organizations where, you know, the experiences of those who you are trying to help are quite dire. Sometimes it is quite limiting of what you can do and the support you can provide. So it's really important to sort of help yourself whether it means speaking to someone or having counseling, just so that you can also prepare yourself for those interactions and how to deal with the disappointment that is a reality of those interactions. When it comes to education so even with me specializing in psychology at university I think I enjoyed coming into a space where it was education. Because again, as I said, for me, it was about that long term effect of seeing how it can improve every individual who was on the program. Um, but when I'm looking at education specifically coming from a background of psychology, there are options for you. And there is quite a variety of options that you might not know exists and actually doing research on the type of organizations or the different type of industries within it is really important. So for me having the background, I had, it was more about people and being able to help people, but working at schools, whether it was as a guidance counselor or as a registered counselor, is something that, you know, I could have gone into that direction. And then working as a nonprofit, interacting with schools, you get to see sort of the social workers. Or on a district level, or even starting to work with other organizations that specifically are there to help young people, whether it is like Childline or working with you know, people who are more underground, whether it's the educationalal psychologists or anyone sort of in that environment. Um, so I think for me personally, I didn't know a lot about remedial education and sort of how to support scholars who are in a space where they actually do need that extra attention. And, you know, having that opportunity to apply for concessions is so huge for some people who weren't aware of that they could have been going their whole sort of primary school years unaware of that. And actually you can specialize into becoming that person who you'd asked your normal teacher, who's doing everyday classes, but you specialize in helping scholars who have a specific need.

Emma: 21:27

We talked about a little bit before is around the separation between yourself and your sort of life outside work and your work in sustainability. And I know a lot of us that work in sustainability climate type fields it can be difficult to make that separation. And, and you mentioned before about burnout and trying to avoid that. So do you feel that it's important to have this separation between yourself out with work and work. And how were you sort of able to do that if so?

Virusha: 21:59

I think it's definitely something that's important for having a healthy lifestyle. I think it's really important to separate yourself from your work because you, as an individual have other passions, you have other needs et cetera that you might want to invest in, whether it is in your personal time, learning a language or, you know, participating in sports, et cetera, you, aren't only just your career. And I think it's so important to separate them because whether it's your personal life or your professional life, you're going to have different challenges and you can't really allow the two to overlap because then it can affect the sort of work that you produce. So I think it is really important to try to separate them. I think for me personally, when I first started off, I didn't have a lot of boundaries when it came to my interactions with my caseload and it really did show, obviously that I cared a lot about the young people I was working with, where if it was after hour calls or if, you know, I needed to do that sort of extra work, I felt it was important because at the end of the day, they might not have that many stable adults in their lives. So if they are going to come to you with a need I wanted to be there to be able to support them. But over the years, something I have realized is that you yourself start going to start feeling the long-term effects, where you don't want to get to the point where you start to resent the work that you do. And you want to sort of keep that passion or that eagerness to do the work you do throughout. You don't want you to really have it get to the point where you're not going to be happy to go into work every day or to take a call, that's even your normal hours. So I think it's really important to sort of look at the role that you have and what you, what is actually expected of you. And then from there really decide for yourself what is it that I am capable of doing? And then what are the definite boundaries that I don't want to open up, for me personally, weekends was something where I felt I needed to actually take this time for myself because if Monday comes and I don't have that energy, you know, you really start to deplete that energy already because you're already working on like a weekend. It doesn't feel like that fresh week is starting. So if there's an emergency, obviously I'm going to take a call or I'm going to step in with whether it's an intervention. However, if during the week I try to let all my scholars know, you know, after 6:00 PM, I'm not going to be that available. So I'm most likely not going to be on my work phone so unless it's an emergency send a message and I'll see it the next day. Something else that my organization put in place was a emergency call line. So there is a different number that they can reach in case of something happening after hours. And then there's someone who is sort of on call in order to meet those needs. So for me, that was really important. And then the other thing I think is as well, is as much as you give your time to your work and sort of getting to the point of wanting to do better and grow within your position, you know, with promotions or taking on other responsibility. You as your personal life is also important. It's you know, about your family, your friends, the relationships you build, and if you're not going to make time for that, it's going to feel neglected and you will also start to feel the effects of that. That's why they made annual leave available or the holidays, because you know, you supposed to take that time off to really connect with others. I noticed a lot in education, especially from high school to university, a big part of high school is getting to that goal of getting accepted with a degree you want to get into. And that is your sole focus really. You might have a few extracurriculars, but most of your time is sort of getting to that goal of the degree you want to get in. And then once you are at university, it's really about passing cause obviously there's this huge jump in challenge and then getting a job. So, you know, it does seem a lot of the time that we go in from one goal to the other, but then when you have the job, you know, what is it actually that you're about? What do you care about outside of this job and your career that I think also you need to invest time in, you know, learn more and, you know, take the time to take on different activities.

Emma: 26:49

You mentioned it's an individual and our role to look and evolve ourselves, learn new things, spend time with friends and family. But also there are things that our organization can do, like create an emergency hotline and things like that. So it almost takes both, it needs your workplace to put these things in place for you. And then also you to sort of set these boundaries that work for you or as us as an individual.

Virusha: 27:14

Yes, definitely. I think it's, you know, it's something that I realized is that if you are struggling whether you're a you're a student or you're, you know, in an organization that you work in, and if you're silent, you're not going to get the help that you need, and you only can set in place these sort of solutions if you maybe start to speak up about the work that you do and the challenges that you're experiencing. So as a scholarship organization, when we first started out about nearly like 18 years ago or so we didn't have all the same type of support that we have today. So, um, it took us getting that feedback from scholars once they've graduated off the program. Speaking to our alumni and having that feedback from our students to say, from your experience as what we argue, when you, what is it that maybe is still something that is stressful for you, or there is a need? And for us that was so important because before we didn't have our scholars on a medical aid and, you know, having a medical aid is something that definitely is a privilege to have, no matter what country you're in and we did feel that we wanted to put aside, having that contribution for our scholars, that if they are sick, they can ask to go to a doctor. However, there's a lot of agency that's taken away from that. Having to ask a different person or this now your organization for permission every single time and putting in place this medical aid, sort of really cuts out that delay where you now have that agency as a student or as a scholar to say, you know what I'm not feeling well, right now I can just book that appointment and sort of achieve sort of, you know, the thing that needs to get done, which is actually getting better. Whereas I think sometimes they might have been too many steps to take before getting there the same when it comes to work. Like I said, I think working as a team and finding out exactly the challenges that other people have. I think that helps with connecting with your colleagues. A Lot of the time we might want to sort of put on this facade that we're doing really well and we achieving our deadlines, et cetera, but it's really important to see what your colleagues are struggling with and then you realise that actually I'm not the only one, or they might be having a challenge that you might have a solution to. And it really creates an environment where you're no more working in silos, but you're able to support each other.

Emma: 29:53

It's been amazing to talk to you this afternoon. Thank you for all your insights, your personal insights, and to the SDGs and education it's been. It's been great. Thank you so much.

Virusha: 30:05

Thank you