Ever since Prudence Motha was invited to join Milpark Education’s first delegation for the Spencer-RIMS Risk Management Challenge, her life has been filled with even more challenges, extra work and plenty of excitement. But it is all paying off handsomely.
She and her fellow team-mates, called the Risk Avengers, have managed to reach the top 8 from 38 international entries. In May, they will go to California in the US to present their case study at the RISKWORLD Conference and hopefully win first place.
“I’m so excited,” says Prudence. “Not just to go to America, but for this – for my life, for me, as well as for my career and family, and those around me,” she says. She also believes her story shows how anything is possible for especially students or those coming from disadvantaged backgrounds who yearn to achieve more in their lives.
Becoming the best version of herself has always been her motto, ever since she was chosen for Oprah Winfrey’s Leadership Academy for Girls in Gauteng in 2009. She completed high school here.
“What Oprah said to us was that the best thing we could ever do for her was to become the best versions of ourselves,” says Prudence. “I actually get emotional if I talk about it now. What she has done for me is amazing.”
Since leaving the school in 2014, Prudence has been thriving in her personal life and her career. She now has a husband and two children and took up a new position at FNB in April this year.
“Cyber risk in particular is where I’d like to move my career,” she says. “It is so interesting – it’s so vast, so new, and exciting and responsive to everything going on in the world.” She is grateful to her husband, her family and friends, who supported her when she had to make sacrifices to build the life she was dreaming of.
“It has obviously been difficult, studying while working, and now this Risk Avengers experience as well. My family has had to accommodate me fulfilling my dreams. My studies will soon be done. I’m giving it my all, you know? Because I’m not just doing it for me – I’m doing it for them.”
Prudence will graduate with a degree in Risk and Compliance in April 2024. It will be a busy month for her — not only does she start a new position at work, but she is also graduating and then preparing to fly off to San Diego alongside a team with whom she has had an incredible working experience.
“My husband is going to come to my graduation,” says Prudence. “And I’m going to speak to my daughters’ school about letting them come, too. I want them at mom’s graduation! It’s something the whole family deserves to be a part of.”
She says her family has been a part of her growth and she feels it is important to acknowledge that as she grows, they grow too as do the people around her.
She is keenly aware of how she is building something solid and strong in her life – a foundation from which she can take a leap and learn more about herself and the world, and one she won’t be able to wait to come back to.
