A 33-year-old guy who supported his schooling by working as a gas attendant realized a longstanding aspiration by becoming a lawyer.
Despite having trouble paying for his education, 33-year-old Siphenkosi Nqoro has achieved his lifetime goal of becoming a lawyer after graduating from the University of Ford Hare in South Africa.
At the age of 29, Nqoro, a native of Qonce, graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Ford Hare. In an interview with Citizen, he recounted his experience and said that becoming a lawyer was a difficult path.
He claimed that in order to help his parents, he began working as soon as he finished from high school. According to Nqoro, he was employed as a gas station attendant in his village, working 12-hour shifts four days a week.
He used his savings to enroll at the university a year after he began working at the gas station. “I began working as a gas station attendant full-time in 2015, and the following year, I made the decision to enroll at UFH for an LLB in order to fulfill my lifelong dream of becoming a lawyer,” Nqoro stated.
”Studying full-time and working full-time has not been easy because sometimes I would work a night shift and immediately after knocking off from work, I had to rush to an 8 am class at university,” he added.
Nsoqo said he did not stop working after he resumed school since both his parents were unemployed, which meant that abandoning his job to focus on his academics was not an option.
“I did not have the privilege of getting money from my parents every month. Rather, I would purchase groceries for my parents and siblings back home using the NSFAS monthly meal allowance stipend,” he stated.
Read on:
- After making a significant effect in Canada, a brilliant Nigerian man celebrates obtaining Canadian citizenship.
- One month after being turned down by the scholarship committee, a brilliant Nigerian scientist receives a UK scholarship.
- A brilliant woman who excels in both the USA and the UK describes how she earned a master’s degree at Harvard in the USA and a bachelor’s degree at Oxford in the UK.
Nsoqo stated that balancing his academics and a full-time job as a petrol attendant was challenging. He added that there were times he requested a weekend shift to spare time for his studies.
“I would occasionally ask my boss at work to put me on weekend shifts so that my work hours wouldn’t conflict with my studies in order to accommodate both my studies and my work,” he stated.
He attributes his success to perseverance, self-control, a love of the law, family support, his supervisor’s support, and the support of his coworkers. Nsoqo claimed that their assistance enabled him to fulfill his goal of becoming a licensed attorney.
Nsoqo started his articles of clerkship with Gondongwana Ngonyama Pakade Attorneys, an East London law company, after graduating. In 2023, he took and passed the Bar Association’s board exams.
At the age of 33, Nsoqo was sworn in as an attorney of the Makhanda High Court in South Africa and became an Admitted Attorney.
