Rodger did everything in his power to improve the lives of his fellow students, now he is getting his good deeds back in the form of a brilliant scholarship.
South Africa – After years of academic successes and entrepreneurial projects, Imagine Scholar graduate, Rodger Chinhangue has been awarded an R2,520,000 scholarship to complete his bachelors in Business Administration at the University of Idaho in the United States. After the completion of his degree, he hoped to return to South Africa to work in infrastructure development to improve social conditions.
Rodger, who attended Sidlamafa Secondary School, joined Imagine Scholar, a rigorous after-school mentorship program for high school learners in the Nkomazi region of Mpumalanga in Grade 9. In the subsequent years, his list of accomplishments proliferated. With a penchant for engineering and solving problems for his community and peers, he independently built the plumbing and electrical system for a new building at the program, captained a team who designed and raced an electric vehicle to victory in a provincial competition, attended the Yale Young Global Scholars program in Singapore, and traveled to the US to mentor youths at Camp Caldera in Oregon.
In 2016, Rodger’s future was catalyzed when he was accepted to complete his International Baccalaureate with a full scholarship to the United World College Dilijan in Armenia. UWC Dilijan pushes the boundaries of conventional education with visionary approaches to increasing on-campus diversity to cultivate culturally literate leaders, poised to achieve the school’s vision of a sustainable future. Upon completing his IB, Rodger returned to South Africa and to the Imagine Scholar campus for a year to mentor younger students and contributed to his community.
During this time, Rodger actioned his passion for engineering and environmentalism by outfitting the Imagine Scholar campus with a solar panel system. In addition to seeing a need for more stable energy source at the programme, which experiences frequent load shedding, Rodger saw the implementation of solar panels as an opportunity to educate the community and student body on the need for sustainable energy sources in light of climate change. Furthermore, the project is estimated to reduce Imagine Scholar’s electricity spend by 75%.
The David Scholarship has awarded Rodger a full scholarship to complete his university studies; however, Rodger is personally raising funds of R15,000 to cover the cost of his airfare to the United States from South Africa.
If you would like to assist Rodger, please contact info@imaginescholar.org to support Rodger’s flight cost or for more information.
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