We are excited to announce that the 2023 recipient of our foundation’s scholarship is Simone van Wyk from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Simone has been selected from a strong group of international students across the USA. Congratulations!
My name is Simone van Wyk, and I’m one of eight children. My dreams have always been bigger than my circumstances. My father has always strived to give his children the best education, being self-employed without a stable income. Being a family of 10 living off one salary was always challenging in an economy like South Africa’s. Regardless, my dreams have always been the driving force behind the successes I will achieve later in life.
The first step towards these accomplishments was getting accepted into my dream school, the Fashion Institute of Technology. Despite their strong academic background, I was the first South African student ever to attend the school due to its competitive nature. With the help of friends as well as family members, I was able to fly for the first time to the concrete jungle, New York City, where all my dreams were supposed to come true. This financial support helped me with the registration for my classes, majoring in Advertising and Marketing Communications for the first semester, with hopes of receiving a scholarship for the next semester.
At the start of my first semester, I was able to obtain a 4.0 GPA, which helped me make the dean’s list, become President of a national club for students of color on campus, as well as secure a seat on the Student Government Association as International President. Despite these accomplishments, the school does not provide funding opportunities for international students. With the current energy crisis happening in South Africa, including water shortages and daily blackouts, the economy has dropped drastically to a point where I cannot afford the American dream lifestyle.
Despite these difficult circumstances, I have been writing articles for companies to earn some money here and there, hoping to gather enough for a plane ticket to go home before the start of the summer. Through internships and classes, I have been fortunate to secure writing opportunities with the International Association of Writers and Editors through freelance work. With this opportunity, I hope to obtain something stable that will help me address my academic debts and continue my educational journey at the Fashion Institute of Technology and beyond. I firmly believe that hard work can outweigh all difficult circumstances, and I know that I will overcome.
