Pretoria girl with 7 distinctions off to Israel

ANT KATZ

ABOVE: Tshego Masemola tells why she is looking forward to a year on a kibbutz

The world is her oyster – having just achieved a whopping seven distinctions for her matric, Tshego Masemola could study anything she wants, anywhere in SA. But Tshego wasn’t sure what she wanted to study just yet. She knew she wanted to volunteer at something, to do something useful – and had even applied to teach English in Thailand, but the organisation she applied to said that they don’t send black people to the area because of cultural differences.

So, when an organisation gave her a flyer at her posh private school in Pretoria, offering a selection of gap-year programmes, she couldn’t resist attending. Masemola made the decision then to volunteer in Israel.

“I really didn’t know what I wanted to do after school and the road show came to the school that spoke about gap-years and Israel looked to be the most interesting,” she said.

RIGHT: Sharp student – Tshego Masemola is on her way to Israel

“Israel seemed like a nice place to gain experience,” she told the media.

In answer to a question, Tshego admitted that she was concerned after last week’s resolution by the United Nations condemning the building of Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land as illegal.  

“I saw (US President-elect Donald) Trump talking on the television this morning and I am afraid that they (the organisation she is volunteering for in Israel) can just phone and tell me that I can’t come any longer,” she said. But that did not deter this obviously driven young lady.

It never deterred me from going to Israel, says Masemola.

The future inspires her. “I can’t just blindly walk towards it… I need to actively work on the future I want to have,” she said. (News24 wire)