Early this month a very special mother-and-son combination graduated from Rhodes with degrees from the Commerce Faculty. Tracey Chambers, who heads up IT Support at the University, obtained her MBA degree and her only son Glynn, his Honours-level Diploma in Accounting.
Tracey, a single mom and also warden at Dingemans House, attributes her motivation and success to Glynn. “When I saw how he persevered and got through his first year of the BComm degree, despite a very serious rugby injury, it inspired me to also tackle further studies”.
Glynn’s skull was fractured during a rugby match in early 2006 and he was advised to take a couple of months off from studying and re-do his year of study, but he refused to be deterred. Many operations and nose reconstructions later, he not only passed his first year, but did so with distinction.
Tracey enrolled for an MBA programme at Rhodes Investec Business School in January 2007. When she learnt that Glynn would be doing an Honours year and would graduate in April 2010, it provided the impetus for her to complete her degree in three years (one of only eight to do so from a group of 32). It also helped that they were studying together in the evenings, when Glynn returned home after three years in residence and digs. “I think he enjoyed the studious atmosphere,” Tracey chuckles.
Reflecting on the demands of juggling a full-time job with being a warden and studying part-time, Tracey smiles wryly and says, “Well it certainly teaches you time management!”
Another spin-off is that it has inspired her staff to consider furthering their qualifications. Tracey says a couple of them came along to her Graduation and it made them think “if she can do it, so can I”.
Glynn has secured a position with KPMG in Cape Town, where he will be doing his articles and Board exams to qualify as an auditor. Through her mini-thesis, Tracey has become so interested in the issues surrounding higher education that she has applied to Wits University to do the Certified Programme in Higher Education Management in South Africa and hopes to be part of their August intake.
Her research, supervised by Prof Chrissie Boughey of the Centre of Higher Education Research Teaching and Learning (CHERTL) at Rhodes, focused on Rhodes graduates securing employment after undergraduate studies.
One of her main findings was that a large number of the students she surveyed at the end of 2008, had decided to continue their studies rather than enter the job market. Many of these opted to stay on at Rhodes. Tracey sees this as a vote of confidence in the University as well as the result of a positive experience of higher education.
Tracey finds she can apply what she learnt from her MBA almost on a daily basis in her work, but mostly, she says, it helped her to explore and learn more about Rhodes and the complex role of a university in society. “The university is so much more than just producing skills for the labour market”.
Pic: Tracey Chambers and Glynn Chambers.