Nandi Ngwenya‚ 19‚ was born and bred in Sandton. However‚ her parents could not afford tuition at South African universities but were also not poor enough for her to benefit from government financial aid. “My parents could not afford it...I was not too poor to receive financial aid but too rich to pay for my studies. The opportunity came from Itumelo Trust who gave us the opportunity to apply‚” Ngwenya said.She will be going to University of Shangai for Science where she will be studying chemical engineering.Ngwenya‚ who matriculated last year‚ said there was a lot that South Africa could learn from the Chinese.“It is a great environment for me to learn in. China developed from the bottom in under 40 years and have achieved so much. China is everywhere. The opportunity to go there is to learn the culture and also learn from some of the smartest minds in the world. They are amazing people. I had an opportunity to go there once in 2014. They have the western development but still keep their culture and it is such an amazing experience‚” she said.As an undergraduate student‚ she will first spend the year at a language university and then proceed to pursue her engineering degree.She is one of 32 young scholarship recipients of the Chinese government and the South African government.The youth are leaving in two weeks to pursue their undergraduate and postgraduate studies in various fields including engineering‚ business‚ economics and agriculture‚ and a non-degree in Chinese language studies. These skills will assist towards advancing the scarce skills agenda.“My dream is to stay at home. No matter where I study. As a woman‚ I feel like a lot of these opportunities are not given to us. Girls in rural areas and townships do not enjoy certain opportunities and privileges. I want to bring technologies that are used in the advanced economies to this side and enable South Africa to become a first world country. We have been a developing nation for too long. I feel we can achieve a lot if we look outside‚” Ngwenya said.The sendoff was held at the Chinese Embassy in Pretoria on Thursday‚ hosted by the Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training Mduduzi Manana and the Chinese Ambassador to South Africa Tian Xuejun...