Simone Anna-Mart Louw wants to innovate, create and build. She aspires to better the lives of people around her.
I’m a South African electrical & electronic engineering student, who loves to surf, but my other hobbies are figure skating, debating, hiking, drawing and 3D modelling, to name a few. I am a learner at heart; if I’m not learning something new, I feel as if I miss out on life, so I’m always trying out new sports/activities/subjects and then attempt to master them. I love teaching and helping other people understand complicated ideas in simpler ways. I’m unfortunately a bit of an adrenalin junky. I’m always looking for something risky or fun to do with friends and family. Seeing the beauty and complexity of God’s creation, and the absolute fine-tuning of the universe, is what inspires me to learn and do what I do. It gives me almost as much of a rush to figure out and solve a complex problem I was struggling with for a long time, as it does to go cliff-jumping with my friends. Innovation, creation and learning, that’s what I love.
From a very young age I have been interested in innovation and problem-solving. I am also very practical and enjoy making or deconstructing complicated systems or devices. At the age of nine, I started to play around with JavaScript and robotics, and at 12, a university friend of my sister started teaching me to build circuitry and program it to do interesting things. I kept on learning other programming languages and doing crazy science projects. I love the idea that if I see a problem, I can build and program something to address that specific need. I knew from then that I wanted to do engineering and here I am now, studying electrical and electronic engineering. There is a whole world of knowledge out there, and tons of things to be discovered. I cannot wait!
I don’t have a perfectly set out plan for my life. I don’t know where I’ll be or what I’ll do 10 years from now – I will go where God leads me. What I do know is that I want to innovate, create and build. My goal is not necessarily to set out and “change the world”, but if I can work to make the lives of the people around me better, that would be perfect!
I have a deep appreciation and awe for how the world is designed and how it works. It intrigues and excites me so much to delve into scientific topics and learn more. The first semester of engineering has been so incredibly interesting, even though it is just the introduction and beginning. The best part is when something I read or hear in class sends me down rabbit-holes of research and reading, and I find things out that I never even knew existed or was possible. Math as well, when everything comes together, and I start to apply it in real-world situations, it’s actually beautiful how it all works out. I sometimes forget how much of a nerd I am when I’m out surfing or hiking. But I quickly remember it when I sit with a math problem and I tell my friends how amazing it is, and they just look at me as if I’m an alien. I am also a very logic- and common-sense driven person, although I often rely on my intuition.
I matriculated at Bloemhof Girls’ High School, situated in Stellenbosch. I had the most incredible teachers. They always went the extra mile for us, taught each group in a way they would understand best, not with a generic method. My science teacher specifically, Ms Steyn, is one of the best teachers I have ever had. Especially now in university, I realise how she taught us so much more than she needed to.
I am able to do things and understand concepts that people from other schools do not – just because she explained more and further than what was just in the curriculum, or in her job description. I learned more about life in my English class from Ms Van Zyl, than the curriculum ever could have taught me. However, this is not just true for them. I cannot express how thankful I am, from the bottom of my heart, for my all teachers at Bloemhof.
I believe that firstly, everyone has different kinds of intelligence. Secondly, everyone learns and understands in different ways. Just because someone is not brilliant at maths, does not mean they are not intelligent – they might just have a different gifting, another talent. One is not more important than another. In my opinion, intelligence cannot be quantified. Human intelligence is so varied, that we cannot measure it in a comprehensive manner.
On the other hand, I believe there are more people who are good at maths and science than we think. What is holding them back is that they have not found the right way to learn or apply it for their own sets of skills and abilities. We have all been designed uniquely and wonderfully. Therefore, everyone has their own way of understanding. As soon as they find a teacher who can teach them their way, or figure out how to teach themselves in their way, they will thrive.
For maths, the best advice I can give is to practice, practice and practice; and for younger learners – start early! Math intuition can be something you are born with, but it is definitely something you can develop. I believe one of the reasons I enjoy math so much, is because I started to do Khan Academy maths before we did it at school. I therefore had a head start on my peers, which is an advantage that could carry over for years afterward – my math intuition could develop earlier already. But the thing that made the biggest difference for me, is that math felt like a game, not a burden or boring homework or something hard that I couldn’t do. At Khan Academy I could score points and do challenges. Not getting something right meant I could do a few exercises and try again until I did get it right. The mindset you have about math is what makes or breaks your progress. If you believe that maths is hard and you are stupid if you cannot do it, it will be hard. But if you believe it’s a challenge that you have not yet been able to overcome, you can hopefully enjoy the game of figuring it out. Other than that, if you can open your eyes to the wonders of science: chemistry, maths, physics, and not think of it as “work”, but rather a discovery process of learning more about creation, I believe you will start to enjoy it as much as I do.
As mentioned before, the best thing to do is practice! Especially in grade 12, with final examinations coming up, it is best to do your part every day, and not leave everything for the weeks before the tests. If you consistently work on problems and exercises, it starts becoming part of your long-term memory. It starts coming naturally to you. The problem comes in when you try to cram before an exam and push all the information into your short-term memory. It might work at first but that’s where the danger of “going blank” comes in. That won’t happen with your long-term memory. The more you practice, the more you will start to recognise patterns. I often heard my friends say, “When the teacher does a math problem, I can understand and follow what she did, but I would never be able to see which steps I had to take if I did it myself.” That’s where the long-term memory and pattern recognition come in.
Apply for as many institutions as you can, but don’t apply to places where you do not want to go, or where you will not grow. Work for the university you want to go to – don’t let life happen to you, you must happen to life! If you have a goal in mind, go for it, work hard, because you can choose to put in more work for what you want in life. Don’t hesitate to ask for help – ask friends or teachers to help you in the places you are struggling. It will not always be fun to work hard, it is usually not, and motivation is not going to come to you out of thin air. Mostly, it just takes discipline and grit.
The concept of “achiever” does not hold the common meaning for me. For many, an achiever is someone who wins things, or who is the best at what they do. For me, being an achiever means that I gave something all I had and tried my very best. If I gave half an effort, I was not achieving anything. Achieving means that I learned something new and got better at something that I struggled with before. I have learned that whenever I do something, two things must be true: Firstly, never work for perfection, work for excellence, otherwise you will never be satisfied with what you have done. Secondly, when working towards a goal, do it for the journey, not the reward, because more often than not, there will be no reward, and then the journey has to have been worth it.
No matter where you start in life, what you own, who you are, what you look like, what talents you may or may not have – there are principles that will lead you to a better, more fulfilling life: hard work, integrity, fairness, compassion…
The most profound truth is that everything you do and everything you think, matters – nothing is ever neutral. What you do, never has an impact on only you. The way you think, is how the future will think – the way you act, is the way those after you will act. Don’t think, “Oh, it’s fine if I cheat on this little test, it will only influence me.” Does it only influence the corrupt person who steals millions in tax money? Does it only influence the person who becomes a doctor through dishonesty? Do you think your moral worldview and what you think in the privacy of your own mind, will have no effects on your children, the way you raise them, and how they will act? The problems in our world start on an individual level. The same is true for the positive – after 27 years in jail, Mandela decided to look towards a better future for all, instead of focusing on vengeance. How much destruction and pain could have been caused if his heart was set on revenge instead of life? Helping someone in need, forgiving a wrong – these acts can change lives. Start taking yourself seriously.
I would definitely choose Elon Musk. I don’t think I would say much – I would just listen! He is an incredible innovator and pioneer, and I am already learning much from what he has built. But not just that – from the way he does not let human beliefs in the impossibility of things limit him – he just does it anyway! I want to create like that one day – without bothering to think about what people deem to be impossible, because what if they’re wrong? What if it is possible?
S.E.T. for socio-economic growth
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