{"id":51625,"date":"2023-05-10T17:19:18","date_gmt":"2023-05-10T15:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spu.ac.za\/index.php\/spus-8th-graduation-celebrates-graduates-and-a-masters-milestone-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-05-10T17:56:10","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T15:56:10","slug":"from-mascot-to-graduate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spu.ac.za\/index.php\/from-mascot-to-graduate\/","title":{"rendered":"From mascot to graduate"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"51625\" class=\"elementor elementor-51625\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-4c891cce elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"4c891cce\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-6a345ff7\" data-id=\"6a345ff7\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-71cfc1c2 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"71cfc1c2\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Letlhogonolo Thintha, the first-ever mascot of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spu.ac.za\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Sol Plaatje University (SPU)<\/span><\/a> in South Africa, recently sat down with the <a href=\"https:\/\/sundayworld.co.za\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>Sunday World<\/em><\/span><\/a> newspaper for an exclusive interview. Thintha made his debut as \u201cGemmie\u201d at the launch of the <a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/3mgoXaW\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">SPU Sport Brand<\/span><\/a> in May 2022. Since then, he has become a beloved figure on campus, representing the university at various events and activities.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Thintha graduated with a Diploma in Retail Business Management\u00a0 \u2013 it was at <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/3VLJc1o\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">SPU\u2019s 8th Graduation Ceremony<\/span><\/a> that his identity as mascot was revealed \u2013 and now serves as the Deputy Secretary General of the Student Representative Council (SRC).<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Read the interview here: <a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/44MEZyi\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">https:\/\/bit.ly\/44MEZyi<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Letlhogonolo Thintha, the first-ever mascot of the Sol Plaatje University (SPU) in South Africa, recently sat down with the Sunday World newspaper for an exclusive interview. Thintha made his debut as \u201cGemmie\u201d at the launch of the SPU Sport Brand <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spu.ac.za\/index.php\/from-mascot-to-graduate\/\" class=\"read-more\">Read More &#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,57],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"coauthors":[185],"class_list":["post-51625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-spu-student-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>From mascot to graduate - Sol Plaatje University<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Letlhogonolo Thintha, the first-ever mascot of the Sol Plaatje University (SPU) in South Africa, recently sat down with the Sunday World\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.spu.ac.za\/index.php\/from-mascot-to-graduate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From mascot to graduate - Sol Plaatje University\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Letlhogonolo Thintha, the first-ever mascot of the Sol Plaatje University (SPU) in South Africa, recently sat down with the Sunday World\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.spu.ac.za\/index.php\/from-mascot-to-graduate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sol Plaatje University\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/solplaatjeuniv\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-10T15:19:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-10T15:56:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.spu.ac.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Thintha-3-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mosima Mehlape\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@solplaatje\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@solplaatje\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mosima Mehlape\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spu.ac.za\\\/index.php\\\/from-mascot-to-graduate\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spu.ac.za\\\/index.php\\\/from-mascot-to-graduate\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mosima Mehlape\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spu.ac.za\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/df5eb8a93d73225156fb2ec5c1714f08\"},\"headline\":\"From mascot to graduate\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-10T15:19:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-10T15:56:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spu.ac.za\\\/index.php\\\/from-mascot-to-graduate\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":112,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spu.ac.za\\\/index.php\\\/from-mascot-to-graduate\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spu.ac.za\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/05\\\/Thintha-3-1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\",\"Student news\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-ZA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spu.ac.za\\\/index.php\\\/from-mascot-to-graduate\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spu.ac.za\\\/index.php\\\/from-mascot-to-graduate\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spu.ac.za\\\/index.php\\\/from-mascot-to-graduate\\\/\",\"name\":\"From mascot to graduate - 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