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Carmell Pillay
Meet Carmell Pillay: #MyTygerMaties60
Author: FMHS Marketing & Communications
Published: 09/12/2016

As part of its 60th-anniversary celebrations, the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences is introducing 60 future healthcare professionals who are currently in their first year. Meet Carmell Pillay.

Carmell Pillay is a first-year B Speech, Language and Hearing Therapy student from Durban. 

She’s the first grandchild in her family to go to university and it was her parents who encouraged her to apply to Stellenbosch University. “Being an Indian and not from Cape Town, I was apprehensive of not fitting in. But I have embraced the change and being away from home. I have met some great people.” 

She says campus life has been even better than what she expected it to be and she looks forward to learning practical skills in her course that she can pass on to patients. “I want to give people the tools they need to combat their impediments,” she explains.

“One of the last things my grandfather told me was to do everything to the best of my ability, even when it’s difficult.” And that is also a lesson she would like to pass on.

Quick questions:
  • If you were an animal, what would you be? “An owl. They are calm, wise and observant, with the potential to capture their target (prey)."
  • What message would you put on a billboard? “Be the person you’d like to meet."
  • What is your pet hate? "Stereotyping. People are more than what they appear to be."
  • Motto you live by? “‘Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, and not our darkness that most frightens us.’ This quote by Nelson Mandela reminds me that we are all born to shine and that we should use the talents given to us, regardless of our fears.”