My name is Suzanne Smith, I am a single parent of two loving boys. My dream was to become a Lawyer, but that all faded away when I got involved with the wrong crew. I started getting involved with gangsterism and substance abuse. And at that time I didn’t have any direction in life because nothing was working out for me, and to me it just felt like my life is over.
My life started to change when my mom came to me and told me about an organization called RLabs, which offers free computer courses to the community. My mom had heard about RLabs from one of the members at our church, so she encouraged me to register for a course but I told her that “I don’t know anything about computers.” Despite this, my mom insisted that I go and she finally convinced me to register for a course which was called Moms 4.0 at the time (currently Moms 6.0). The class was just full of ladies, and I felt so comfortable being around them because I could be myself. For me personally; it wasn’t just about the actual course, I had a sense of belonging when I came to class and I was part of a family, RLabs accepted me for who and what I am they didn’t judge me.
After completing the course Rene asked me if I would like to become a Co-facilitator, I didn’t hesitate; I just said “Yes I’ll do it”. I then also became a lead Facilitator for the Moms, and I currently do facilitation for the Introduction to Social Media class. I feel so privileged to have been given this wonderful opportunity.
And I have recently become a Social Entrepreneur within the RLabs space. I wasn’t really prepared for this, it all started at a hack-a-thon which RLabs hosted. The hack-a-thon was about identifying a problem within your community and coming up with a solution. So Wendy, Rene and I worked on the idea and it all went good for us. However, I wasn’t ready to put this idea into action because I thought “we only did it for that evening and that it’s done now”. But Wendy came to me and told me about the Incubator within RLabs, I told her “yes, I know about it” and she came up with this crazy idea “why don’t we pitch our idea to Marlon and see if we will be accepted into the incubator”. As crazy as it was we tried it, and our idea got accepted into the incubator.
Coming into the incubator was all new to me because I didn’t know a thing about business and what it was to be an entrepreneur. But just going through this phase and having all the support of the RLabs crew has made me see that sometimes the impossible is possible. So, I’m currently in the incubator working on my idea with my business partner Wendy. Everything is looking good, but I won’t reveal too much, all I’m saying is “watch the space for the 24th October where everything will be announced and happening”.
“Never let your circumstances determine your future”
So proud of you Suzanne, go for gold cos that’s what you’re worth 🙂
Keep up the good work Suzanne . Don’t let anything discourage keep loking forward and coincentraste on your goal what ever that may be.
I am a South African originaly from Cape Town living in America. I have a BS in Social Sciences and a partial completion on an MA in Counseling Psychology. I have taken Career Counseling as part of my MA course work in Counseling Psychiology and woud be happy to help you explore career and academic choices.
I live in the Boston area of America which is noted for it’s academic facilities with such leading universities as Harvard,MIT ectc. If you think that you might like to explore the posibility of coming to study in America do not hestitate to contact me. You still can become that lawyer you are never to old to start. Over here there are more academic fcilities to chose from then in South Africa.Let’s speak soon.
Regards,
Russell
Keep up the good work Suzzanne.
you really are amazing
Beautiful and inspiring story and keep up with the good work. God bless you!