From lecturing to authoring text books and securing millions in funding for international projects, Merle McOmbring-Hodges never shies away from any challenge.
The Director of International Affairs at CPUT, McOmbring-Hodges plays a crucial role in the internationalization of CPUT and the South African higher education sector.
She was elected as the first female president of the International Education Association of South Africa and was also celebrated by the European Union as one of five women who are making a difference in the higher education sector.
Apart from being a guru on all things international, McOmbring-Hodges is a highly qualified scientist and has contributed to the development of science teachers in South Africa.
She shared some of her career highlights with CPUT news.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
I enjoy making things happen, negotiating new ideas and establishing novel initiatives with school children, students, academics, researchers and community members. Growing an international perspective located within the local, at all times.
Can you point out a career highlight?
I have many career highlights but I will discuss three of them because they happened in different phases of my career.
In my early career, just after I completed my Masters at Leeds University, I was employed by the British Council to develop teachers’ professional development in science. We wrote science text to support teachers. When I saw my name on the first textbook, I was elated! I jumped with excitement because my name was in print.
My mid-career highlight was when I was asked to do my first keynote address at an international conference organized by the Scandinavia and the International Universities Association.
And now in the autumn of my career, months before my retirement, I was elected as the Chair of a Provincial Environmental Organization. This is indeed a career highlight!
What do you attribute your success to?
To people who believed in me, who mentored me to believe in myself, to dream and to follow my dreams. They taught me to respect human dignity, to be truly non-racial and to develop my own set of values that can guide me throughout my life.
What woman inspires you and why?
My mother. She had very little formal education, but she was a true scholar. Always asking questions, always sharing her own knowledge but most of all always supporting her three daughters to become what she could not.
Do you have any words of advice for the generation of women behind you?
Be true to yourself, believe that you can do it.
Enter any domain you set your heart on and do the best that you can at all times. Do not allow bureaucratic oppression to stop you from achieving and reaching your dream and do not think other women will automatically support and guide you.
Support others to grow, both female and male, respect public funds as you would respect your own. Do not use your power and authority to undermine the development of others.
Written by Candes Keating
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