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Sharon Masiza, Senior Director for Missionvale, Second Avenue, and Bird Street campuses, welcomed the visitors emphasising that this MSU visit aligns with strategic priority five of Mandela University’s Vision 2030, which focuses on internal and external stakeholders' engagement.
“We are excited to have you at Nelson Mandela University’s Missionvale Campus. We have seven campuses across the university, but this is the campus that is located closer to reality, in the community where our students come from, and it’s a strategic positioning of this campus. As we go along, you'll see the focus on community engagement that we have as a campus, Sharon said.
The campus walkabout included key academic and community engagement entities, including the Medical School, the medicinal garden and the INMED South Africa aquaponics site.
Dr Zithulele Tshabalala explained about the Medical School and Dr Mea van Huyssteen let the tour to the Medicinal Garden.
“This Medical School could have been in Summerstrand, but we decided to put it here, because that is where the people we want to serve are.
"With our selection, we want to take students from rural areas and bring them in so that they can go back home and make those health systems a little bit better. "
When they are here, they need to always be reminded who they are doing all of this for,” explained Dr Zithulele Tshabalala, a Senior lecturer in Human Anatomy and HOD in Human Biology and Integrated Pathology
Dr Mea van Huyssteen, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacology, led the tour to the Medicinal Garden and explained its purpose.
“The Medicinal Garden is a collaborative project between the University and traditional health practitioners from the surrounding area. We're aiming to develop it as a physical resource for teaching and learning, research and community engagement,” she said.
She further detailed the richness of the garden.
“We’re located in the Eastern Cape province, which is the traditional home of the Xhosa people. It's not only Xhosa people that live here; there are a lot of other cultures that also live here, but the healers specifically that we work with and that we're collaborating with are the Xhosa people,” Dr Van Huyssteen concluded with interesting facts about some of the garden plants.
Michigan State University postgraduate students shared the experience they gathered during the campus tour.
Theresa Murphy and Laurel McGertywe
“We had the best time here, we felt so welcomed, we were able to go and tour some of the various facilities. I've been very impressed by both how beautiful this campus is and all the community outreach that Missionvale Campus has been doing. I’m impressed and touched by how deeply the mission of connecting and serving the community is seen, even just in a couple of hours,” Theresa Murphy said.
“It's been a wonderful experience being on campus today and hearing about the community engagement, student involvement, and overall holistic development of students in the greater community. We have been enjoying the week here,” said Laurel McGertywe.