Mihlali Luningo

Mihlali Luningo a 25-year-old 3 year student studying Education at the University of Johannesburg.

Mihlali enjoys being involved in youth collaborative engagements that enable students to learn and grow in their academics. One of the organizations that she has been part of that have influenced her values and knowledge was Activate SA, an organization that grooms youth in leadership skills and imparts educational values to help their communities. Mihlali is a young adult that finds joy in helping others and expresses her interest in this by tutoring learners on weekends for free. This has enabled her to improve her presentation skills as she is working towards becoming an educator. She values humans and the power of the human mind, she believes that anyone can learn and reach their full potential with the right support and dedication. Mihlali has had the opportunity to engage in Work-Integrated Learning as part of her acquiring her degree from 1 year and has overall been exposed to classroom environments as each year she visits different High Schools to spend at least two weeks there. This experience has sharpened her efforts of improving her pedagogy and most importantly find out what she enjoys most about this profession. She believes that the teaching profession requires passion and patience and works daily on these attributes.

As a big dreamer, she has the hopes to start a platform for support specialists in the education industry as she has realized that educators and learners require additional support. The Basic Education department of South Africa advocates for the accommodation and support of every learner regardless of the background, abilities, socio-economic status and race or sex. This has become Mihlali’s desire, to ensure that wherever she is, she supports and accommodates learners no matter what. As part of her journey in becoming a support specialist too, she aims at creating a platform that will allow all those that are interested in this field to engage and perhaps build a structure to support all learners and educators.

Her motto in life that has been influenced by her studies and experiences is that we are all lifelong learners, we learn every single day whether we are aware of it or not, there is always something to learn.