By Destiny de Vos (C38)

Our journey began on Thursday, 1st of February 2024, with a burst of enthusiasm from the Old Mutual team. We truly felt welcomed with open arms. We received a short tour of where we’d be working, gained security clearance and were given lots of goodies. Rest assured, we felt more than eager to work with them.

Our first few tasks were unexpected. The nine of us were separated into teams of three and asked to develop a manifesto. This was to foster a healthy working culture among ourselves. We had to develop our values, team name, and logo as part of the manifesto. Once completed, the three teams united to create shared principles and devise a system to reward each other for adhering to those principles. This had a big impact on me, seeing a big corporate organisation being able to foster such a welcoming, safe and overall positive working environment.

Recently, our three teams were each assigned the mentorship of an Umuzi Alumni currently employed at OM. Each week, we rotated to a new mentor and were able to observe their work and meeting sessions. We learned a lot. However, I also felt valued as my ideas were allowed to be heard and implemented by those working at the company.

This journey has been nothing short of an adventure. And I can’t wait to see what comes next.