Graduation 2022 at Stellenbosch University (SU) will go down in family history as the year that all four of the De Lange daughters, aged between 21 and 27, were capped in a range of different degrees. Two of the Paarl-based siblings received their honours degrees, while the youngest two, who are twins, received their undergraduate degrees.
Johanna Maria (Andria) de Lange (27), graduated with her BSc Honours Clinical Anatomy; Roné (25) on 18 December received her B.Com Honours Industrial Psychology degree; Jani (21) got her BSc Human Life Sciences and her twin sister, Mari, graduated with her B. Accounting degree.
The celebration was made just that much more special by the fact that the parents of the four girls, are also Stellenbosch University alumni. Anna-Mari, a stay-at-home mother and Johan, who works as an executive at Kaap Agri, could barely keep up with all the different graduation ceremonies on 6 December, 7 December and 8 December – but were there in full force to support their daughters and to celebrate their various achievements afterwards.
In an interview, Andria paid tribute to her parents for the constant support and encouragement they’ve given to all their daughters through the years. The family, who are originally from Porterville, moved to Paarl in 2017.
“Our parents raised all four of us to follow our dreams, our passions, and our ideals. They instilled in us the value of an education, and they always emphasised we must try to use our education to help others.”
“Our family philosophy is to help others in whatever way we can, in whichever career we choose.”
“We are extremely grateful towards our parents for working so hard to grant us the opportunity to be able to educate ourselves further. They had to endure many financial and emotional challenges to make this possible for us, and words will never be enough to describe our gratitude towards them. They have had a child studying at Stellenbosch University since 2014 and two of us will be continuing our studies in 2023. We really honour our parents for their sacrifices, their guidance, and their support and for giving up so many of their own dreams to enable us to pursue ours,” said Andria.
Andria said that all four of the De Lange daughters thoroughly enjoy studying. “We all want to pursue our dreams and make an impact, whether it is in a small way or on the big stage,” she said.
