Are you restless and ready to build a new world?

Applications for the 2019 Bertha Scholarship opened on 1 August, 2018. The Bertha Centre will welcome its next cohort of change agents, innovators and system entrepreneurs to its Bertha Scholar Community, for programmes commencing in 2019. If you are itching to pioneer at the frontier of social innovation on the African continent, apply for this catalytic opportunity with the Bertha Centre - the continent’s leading academic centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Bertha Scholarships have been offered as a core and critical offering since the establishment of the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship, now almost seven years ago. The scholarship programme also helps the centre deliver on its part of the mission at the UCT Graduate School of Business (GSB) which is "to build the capacity of partners, practitioners and students."

In collaboration with the GSB, the centre has integrated social innovation into the business school curriculum, established a wide community of practitioners and awarded over R7 million towards the scholarships for students from across Africa.

“Bertha Scholars are illustrious innovators and provocative characters committed to social justice,” says Bulelwa Makalima–Ngewana, Interim Director at the Bertha Centre. Scholarships are awarded to cover the fees of studying either the Masters in Business Administration (MBA) or Masters in Philosophy (MPhil) specialising in Inclusive Innovation, at the UCT GSB.

Bertha Scholars are selected on the basis of the following criteria:

• Track record of social justice, innovation and entrepreneurialism in their work experience;
  
• Eligibility for the programme of their choice at the Graduate School of Business, and
  
• Character and the capacity that the scholarship will catalyse their trajectory and careers.

Bertha Scholars are radiant, restless and ready to build our new world. They are bold, ambitious and believe in the power of vision allied with determined action. Bertha Scholars include:

• Mpodumo Doubada (MBA, 2015) – founding CEO of Pimp my Book, a chain of campus stores at campuses across the country. Founded in 2006 at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
  
• Micah Shako (MBA, 2015) – founding CEO of Tsavo Innovation Labs, in Nairobi Kenya.
  
• Zamandlovu Ndlovu (MPhil, 2016) – Thought Leader, Author and Intrapreneur at SA Reserve Bank. Former Business Day Columnist.
  
• Farhana Parker (MPhil, 2018) - M&G 200 young South African, Global Shaper with the World Economic Forum and founding director of The Social Makeover.

“The scholarship provides the opportunity for many who may not have otherwise been able to attend a graduate business school, to do so. Our scholars represent the values of social innovation or entrepreneurship towards social justice, and they provide a critical voice in spaces that have often neglected to reflect on the responsibility of business and by extension executive education, in relation to the socio-economic realities of our world,” adds Fergus Turner, Bertha Scholarship Programme Manager.

Moreover, scholars will join a community of over 63 scholars and alumni who make up a mutually supportive and resourceful network of change-makers. This community continues to grow and evolve, becoming an empowering launch pad for anyone wishing to engage in systemic change and social innovation allied with like-minded innovators from across Africa.

The scholarship aims to catalyse students’ and/or professionals’ journeys towards addressing inequalities from across the continent through this financial aid and by getting them connected to its growing community of practice and action-oriented leaders.