It’s not every day that we as WSA get a speaker, who has passed through the same system as us in terms of our course, with the same lecturers who seem not to get old and the same unrevised course units, coming to mentor us. For Salim Mandela, a senior research scientist at the MaraMeru Cheetah project, a former Alumni, graced himself to inspire and motivate us.

Salim showed us a background of what he does at the MaraMeru Cheetah project highlighting the differences between cheetahs and leopards, there predators and some of the diseases and environmental issues they face in the wild.

Salim also talked about the relevance of the course to the society stating the importance of some of the courses we didn’t enjoy studying, the essence of personal growth by reminding us to have positive thoughts, participate in extracurricular activities and also the need of learning more of what we are taught in class such as trees, birds and mammals.

The role of the professional body, WSA, was also brought up by it being an organization that enables its members to get involved in wildlife activities and also learn more about wildlife issues.

Salim did his best to remind us how important our course is and also gave us hope which some of us had lost. We were enlightened about our course with a clear view of what to expect once we are through with the degree program.

It was a great opportunity for Salim Mandela to inspire us as we call to other alumni to do the same.

You either do something that you want or you have all the reasons why you can’t.