Ndiphiwe completed matric (12th grade) last year with dreams of studying medicine but things didn’t go according to plan and he was not accepted at any of his chosen universities. While he has dusted himself off and started an IT course in a local college, his heart still longs for medicine, and with the support of his mom, his Video Mentor Danny, and Infinite Family bhuti (‘brother’) Zinzo Tebe, he’s made a choice to find a new way to keep that dream alive.
Ndiphiwe is the first to admit he saw the setback coming. He accepts his accountability for not working diligently enough to obtain the results he knew he needed and has made peace with it but now he’s all in – determined to qualify as a medical doctor. And though he’s finished school and enrolled at the College of Cape Town to study towards a technology diploma, and decided to rewrite Maths and Physics Matric exams in November, to improve his grades. To increase his prospects even further, he’s made the choice to stay connected with Infinite Family and continue weekly VCs with his mentor, Danny.
When asked why, he explains: “I joined Infinite Family last year and enjoy that sense of belonging. I still want more of it. And I enjoy my calls with Danny.”
He says his mentor has been a steady presence through the uncertainty, sharing his own experiences and offering advice that stuck: “Don’t quit something unless you have a solid backup.”
He has also received perspective from bhuti Zinzo, who suggested trying an alternative path to medical school.
Ndiphiwe’s experience is a powerful demonstration of Infinite Family’s Three Rs in action:
Resilience showed up in how he absorbed a result he hadn’t hoped for, without letting it derail him from his bigger goal.
Resourcefulness helped him work the problem, drawing on his mom, Video Mentor Danny, and bhuti Zinzo to piece together a route back to medicine he hadn’t seen on his own.
And Responsibility was evident in the honest way he owned his part in the setback and made the sensible choice to keep leaning on the mentorship support that he knew could benefit him beyond school.
That’s the pattern we see across our teens: not one dramatic comeback, but a string of daily choices to keep showing up for themselves — staying in the room, asking for a second opinion, rewriting the exam, logging on for the VC. It’s what turns a setback year into a setup year, and it’s why the vision doesn’t have to change even when the timeline does.