Mónica Manilal received the Vice‐Chancellor and Principal's medal for excellent undergraduate academic achievement in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, when her BCom Financial Sciences degree was conferred on her on 28 April 2021.
This huge achievement came with a lot of hard work, Manilal says, but the will to learn and excel made her determined. “I focused on obtaining a deep understanding of the content. Once there's a deep understanding, it becomes easier to apply that to any question.”
Manilal has always enjoyed commerce and wished to pursue a career in the field of financial management since her school days. That is why she decided on the BCom Financial Sciences degree. “I think seeing others, like my cousins, in this field might have also influenced me,” she adds.
Her favourite subjects were Financial Accounting and Financial Management, as it interested her particularly and she enjoyed studying it.
The best part of her undergraduate studies was the new, wonderful friends she made. “The quality time spent with them will always stay in my memories, and they made the whole varsity experience way better.”
Although she still socialised with friends during her free time, most of her time was allocated to academics. She took good care of her health also by walking to campus and getting enough sleep.
Time management was her biggest challenge. “There would be lots of work load and assignments, and managing all that while also cooking and doing the household chores means that I would barely get time to rest. But this in itself was a good experience to learn time management and cooking,” she adds.
While she didn't have much time to watch movies, she would definitely spend the Friday night watching Netflix after a test week, she admits.
Receiving the award reflects her life motto: that hard work always pays off, either with success or with experience. “I am very results driven. That's why the end result, my target, became my motivation. Support from a few close people also kept me motivated.”
She has the highest regard for her Faculty and University. “My school friends and I had always wanted to go to the University of Pretoria, and when we got accepted, it was like a dream come true. I had a really good time at UP and the Faculty of EMS. It's a beautiful, huge campus with helpful and friendly lecturers from whom I got to learn a lot.”
Manilal is currently enrolled for the Honours in Financial Management degree at UP and is focusing on working hard for this year.
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