Grocott's Mail
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Trending
  • Vehicle dealership drives Winter Warmers initiative
  • Shakespeare has been outdone
  • Get your passport blessed 
  • Yes, it changed us
  • The Enyobeni Tavern tragedy: lessons for our own municipality
  • The spirit of Africa in indigenous African instruments
  • A laugh a day keeps the end of fest blues away
  • The hole left by absent fathers
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Grocott's Mail
Cue Media
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Grocott's Mail
You are at:Home»OUTSIDE»Conservation»It is never too late to get that PhD, ever!
Conservation

It is never too late to get that PhD, ever!

Karabo DikobeBy Karabo DikobeNovember 7, 2021Updated:November 9, 2021No Comments3 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Houses in the Dwesa-Cwebe Reserve on the Transkei coast of South Africa. Photo: Wilmien Wicomb, Legal Resources Centre (LRC)

By KARABO DIKOBE

Once you find something you are passionate about it, run with it. Opportunities will reveal themselves to you – as they did for 58-year-old PhD holder Deon ‘Div’ de Villiers.

De Villiers was recently awarded his PhD in biodiversity conservation on the Wild Coast by Rhodes University 15 years after obtaining his MSc at the University of the Transkei (Unitra). Like his PhD, his MSc focussed on things that interest him – forests and mammals.

He has worked in conservation for 38 years, 30 of them focused on the Wild Coast. His thesis explores the tensions between Western-style and local traditional conservation practices – and possible common ground.

“I have seen the efforts made to conserve the area, but I have also seen the importance of natural resource use for local people. If these seemingly opposing factors are not carefully managed, it can lead to conflict, which has often been the case historically”.

De Villiers’s believes in living life to the full. He writes down everything he wants to complete and then tackles it, “one bite at a time”. He describes life as one big adventure, not to be wasted on playing video games and watching television.

Initially, de Villiers did not aspire to obtain a PhD. “I just wanted to do the best that I could at conserving nature and kept learning about the ways of doing this. It took de Villiers several years to obtain his PhD because he waited to find a topic he was passionate about and a supervisor who shared that passion. He says the suitable supervisor will be your rock when you feel like throwing in the towel, mainly because no one else will necessarily understand what you are going through.

De Villiers warns that the road to a PhD (or any significant achievement) can be pretty lonely. This is when the passion and the keen interest come in and help you push through. Remember why you started!

For anyone feeling like it is too late to get that qualification or to learn that skill, de Villiers encourages you to remember that “your brain is like the rest of your body, you have to keep using it or it will degenerate. Identify a skill or subject you want to learn about and knuckle down and learn about it. And if you have skills and experience developed over the years, share your knowledge with others”.

Dr de Villiers’s parting words: “Just a sincere word of thanks to my supervisor, Prof Thembela Kepe, and the wonderfully supportive team at the Rhodes Geography Department. They helped to make it happen.”

Previous ArticleANC expects an “amicable, professional Council”
Next Article Curious Buchule gets a medal
Karabo Dikobe

Related Posts

RUCE SD card project pleads for more donations

VG learners cut their reporting teeth

Education department has 20 days to appoint four Mary Waters teachers

Comments are closed.

Cue for you!
Cue for you!
Cue for you!
Tweets by Grocotts
Newsletter



Listen

The Rhodes University Community Engagement Division has launched Engagement in Action, a new podcast which aims to bring to life some of the many ways in which the University interacts with communities around it. Check it out below.

Latest video

Weather    |     About     |     Advertise     |     Subscribe     |     Contact     |     Support Grocott’s Mail

© 2022 Maintained by School of Journalism & Media Studies.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.