This past Saturday, The Sunday Standard, like many other proud parents, grinned with pride as five of its interns graduated from the highest institution in the land, the University of Botswana (UB).
Companies are always encouraged to take on interns as part of their social responsibility; some have heeded the call while others choose to ignore it.
For the Sunday Standard, their patience and tolerance, while grooming their interns, has not only helped them grow as a company but helped the interns with valuable experience and knowledge of the real world.
We are talking about a company that took in clueless kids, who had just started university and groomed them to be experienced reporters with a bright future ahead.
Initially, my other four colleagues, Kedidimetse Mpolokeng, Angela Mdlalani, Tlotlang Rahube and Kagiso Selabe were supposed to be in their internship program for about three months, but the company was quick to notice their talent and decided to keep them well after their official internship was over.
“…(these students) have been invited to continue submitting stories to this paper, if they so wish, as long as it does not interfere with their academic imperatives”, said Tanonoka Whande, Sunday Standard’s Chief Sub-Editor, in our letters to the university, at the end of the internship period.
The students worked hard to balance school work and “a job” that paid them well beyond a local student’s wildest dreams.
The students became household names while they were still learning the ropes of the profession and for that, the acumen and close working relationship of both the University of Botswana and the Sunday Standard management has to be praised and commended since all the interns associated with both have graduated from university with even more experience than some reporters have.
Working for a national brand like The Sunday Standard was hard work, seeing as how they had to “maintain the Standard” as well as do well in their school work, which was made up of long boring lectures, tiresome assignments, practicals and long days at school, causing sleepless nights for both lecturers and students.
I have had the pleasure of working with them and I can personally vouch for the inspiration they received from working in such an open and professional environment to become the good writers they are today.
The Sunday Standard should be an example to other companies to help the youth in our society realise their potential because we all know that the syllabuses we have in our schools are more theoretical than practical.
As one of those students myself, allow me to say: “On behalf of the five that graduated, we want to thank The Sunday Standard, and other companies like it, for the chances they took with us, for believing in the youth and for contributing to a society of informed and responsible youth. The ambassador that I aim to be some day thanks you, the management and the staff, for where we are today.
“Spencer Mogapi is a drill sergeant and the best boss one could ask for. It was easy to learn from Prof Malema because he knows his subject so thoroughly that there was no chance of missing anything. We owe everything to Outsa Mokone, the gentle but hard-prodding mentor, and Tanonoka Whande, our fatherly tutor and slave driver who made it all look so easy and enjoyable. The respect we have for all of you is immeasurable.
In my case, the paper could even afford to take me in when I knew nothing. I wasn’t even studying journalism but they kept me for two and a half years. Today, we have graduated. This is for them as much as it is for our parents.”
We know, it is now time to maintain the standard.
On a personal note: this one is for my father!
Thank you so much, Sunday Standard!
