IITPSA has achieved many milestones over the past few years, including professional body recognition by SAQA and accreditation by IP3, achieving a member base of just under 8,000 members and turning 60 this year (to name but a few). However, the milestone we are most proud of is that this year, for the first time in the history of IITPSA, we have awarded an IITPSA Bursary to a young woman studying ICT.

What makes this bursary unique is that the recipient is a first-year student. The bursary covers full tuition, residence, textbooks and a new laptop.

The bursary selection process was tough as all of the shortlisted candidates were worthy recipients. The selection committee eventually decided to award the bursary to a 19 year-old young woman studying for a BSc degree in Computational and Applied Mathematics – Computer Science at Wits University.

The recipient of the 2017 bursary is Keamogetswe Lebuso, a young woman from Tembisa who is being raised by a single mother.

Unfortunately, her high school did not offer any IT or computer related subjects so she had very limited knowledge and interaction with computers.

Despite this, she researched widely and decided that Computer Science looked, by far, more interesting than any of the other career paths.

Kea is very passionate about the subject and she wants to go back to her school to encourage other girls to study and pursue a career in IT.

Kea is ambitious, hardworking and an optimist and will serve as a student ambassador for IITPSA.

We wish her well in her studies.