For five days a week during her Diploma Studies, Londiwe Peaceworth Luthuli made a conscious decision to dedicate an average seven hours a day, including lectures, towards her studies.

She studied alone and as part of a group and created her own study timetable which would make her learning much smoother.

This dedication and ownership of her studies would lead to Luthuli, a UNIZULU Diploma: Cooperatives Management student, to graduate as one of the five Top Achievers during her Faculty’s (Commerce, Administration and Law) graduation ceremony this morning (Friday, 12 May 2017). The graduation ceremony was the last session in this year’s UNIZULU Graduation Ceremonies. The ceremonies, which were held at the King Bhekuzulu Hall, KwaDlangezwa Campus, began on Monday, 8 May 2017 and ended today (Friday, 12 May 2017).

To her excitement and surprise, Luthuli achieved an average mark of 82%.

“I’m so excited I don’t even know what to say,” said Luthuli. “It worked hard but I never thought that I’d make it in the top five, even though at the back of my mind I knew that my hard work would pay off in some way. To be a Top Achiever is no small feat so I am truly excited and honoured to have been given a chance to study at the University of Zululand,” she said.

Luthuli is the first person in her family to go to university which also pushed her to work hard in order to make her family proud. “When I arrived at UNIZULU, I had no registration fee. When I finished matric, I knew that I was going to university but had no idea how. However, my aunt helped with the registration fee. I was awarded a study bursary at the end of my first year which pushed me to work extra hard so as not for it to be rescinded for poor performance,” she said.

Luthuli advised other young people to not give into life’s challenges, saying that if others can overcome them, so can they. She also advised them to always go the extra mile on their studies and not be afraid to ask questions where they do not comprehend.

“You must work very hard as a student; harder than the lecturer in fact,” she said.