In his matric year, a volunteer teacher walked the extra mile to inspire and assist Ricardo Smart to become the first member of his family to enter university. These days Smart is a PhD student in wine biotechnology at Stellenbosch University, but the teacher's example still inspires him to a life in service of others. His endeavours have culminated in the International Leadership Council Award from the Golden Key International Honour Society, which was presented to him on 26 July.

Golden Key Society is a non-profit organisation linked to over 400 universities worldwide. Only in its second year, the GK-ILC Awards are bestowed on student leaders across the globe who excel as leaders, in academics or in doing community work. Smart was recognised for community leadership, while the other awards went to students in the USA and the Asia-Pacific region.

Smart has since 2011 been an active member of the Stellenbosch chapter of the Golden Key Society, especially in organising its service component. He has among others helped with the Toasties for Tummies drive (which provided sandwiches to 20 Stellenbosch communities on Mandela Day in collaboration with Maties Community Service) and a Christmas in July project for several local aftercare centres.

He is especially proud of his endeavours since 2015 to organise Golden Key members' continued involvement as tutors to primary school learners attending a local aftercare programme in Stellenbosch: “It's been amazing to see how the children's confidence in their abilities have grown, thanks to the help and the encouragement that the students give them with their schoolwork."

Smart, who was head boy of Blackheath High in his matric year in 2009, says it is the example of maths teacher Charlton Hendricks who inspired his own life of service.

“For the first six months of matric we did not have a maths teacher. Mr Hendricks stepped in as volunteer, and even tutored us on Saturdays to help us catch up. In the end I passed matric maths, with a mark very close to distinction," he remembers.

What still stands out for him is the extra mile that Hendricks took to fill in the necessary application forms for him. 

“If he did not help me with the forms and partly pay for application fee, I would not have been where I am today," Smart knows.

The influence of Mr Hendricks' volunteer work came to mind when in his third year as a BSc student Smart's friend, Keenan Herbert, suggested that they tutor maths and accountancy to learners in and around Blackheath. That's what they did most Saturdays in 2014 and 2015 at the Evergreen Resource Centre. Over the two years they saw many teenagers grow in confidence, and reach their career dreams.

“Being in service is very much like planting a seed. Don't expect a tree tomorrow. Take care of it regularly and before you know it it could grow into a tree," believes Smart.

Over the years, Smart has received awards for community service from Stellenbosch University, and a Super Mentor Award from Media24's Rachel's Angels Project. Last year GoodHope FM recognised him as an inspirational leader.

“To be of service comes naturally to me, and often happens in the heat of the moment. By now it's a way of life for me," he notes. “To help someone is such a pleasant feeling."

At heart Smart is also a microbiologist, and already has an BSc honours degree in Medical Microbiology and an MSc in Microbiology behind his name. Smart has his sights set on completing his doctorate through the Institute for Wine Biotechnology, part of the Department of Viticulture and Oenology at Stellenbosch University. Then he hopes to secure a postdoctoral fellowship at an overseas institution specializing in Functional Metagenomics, and to later return to South Africa to take up a teaching or research position in academia. For his PhD, he is researching the way in which vineyard cover cropping faba beans and triticale influence the soil, leaves and grape microbiota, and ultimately impact on the finished wines.

He has twice represented the Stellenbosch University Golden Key chapter in the US. Last year he was also at the Cape Town International summit, and this year at the Ubuntu International Leadership Summit in Pretoria. He is still involved in the Golden Key Society, but now in a national capacity as its alumni liaison. It provides him with the opportunity to collaborate with chapters at other universities in the country.

“I want to be an influencer who inspires others to help others, and to help them do so," he dreams.

People on whom his example has already rubbed of include his own mother, Leah Smart, and a former president of the Stellenbosch Golden Key chapter, Morakane Kepa.

“I started taking my mother along when I began donating clothing to homeless people in Stellenbosch. These days she's the one asking when we are doing it again. That is quite a feeling! Morakane started donating clothes after Golden Key hosted a clothing drive in aid of the Stellenbosch Disaster Unit."