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UWC is a home from home for the Romans
(From left) Joshua Roman, Allan Roman, Nicholas Roman and Prof Nicolette Roman (front centre).
NICHOLAS AND JOSHUA ROMAN first ‘attended’ the University of the Western Cape as children accompanying their parents to campus. Their mother, Professor Nicolette Roman, was then a research assistant in the Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Community and Health Sciences and their father Allan worked in Finance Administration. Almost two decades later, Nicholas has completed his BCom Financial Accounting degree while his older brother Joshua is in the final year of a BAdmin degree at UWC. Nicolette holds the SARChI Chair in the Development of Human Capabilities and Social Cohesion through the Family and is based at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Children, Families and Society in UWC’s Faculty of Community and Health Sciences. Allan is the projects development manager at the School of Government in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences.
Both parents are not only alumni, but met as students and married in 1994. Joshua was born in 1996 and Nicholas followed in 1997. As for their parents, there was never any question about where they would study.
Prof Roman says, “During the apartheid era, if you were not white you were made to feel lesser than or incapable. I was never going to go to a university other than UWC because UWC was home, a space where I could be myself and where I was not going to be compared to someone other than myself. I could grow and become.”
After completing a BA degree majoring in English and Psychology in 1991, she did her Higher Diploma in Education, BEd (Psychology), MA in Child and Family Studies and PhD in Psychology at UWC. Allan also achieved all his qualifications at UWC – BA, HDE, BComm (Hons) and MAdmin.
Nicolette’s father passed away when she was only seven and she was raised by a single mom in Silvertown, Athlone. Money was scarce, but there was always lots of love and support from the extended family.
“My mom is a loving disciplinarian who encouraged the love of reading, books, education and being a strong woman. The central driver for my mom was that as a girl child, I needed to get an education above all else. She also instilled values of structure, discipline, caring for others, taking care of the less fortunate and being able to give back,” says Prof Roman.
She says, “Family was everything and we laughed even during times of strife. We were not allowed in certain areas, in certain parts of a train or bus. I was very young but can clearly remember witnessing how people were asked for their documents and then thrown into a police van if they did not have it.”
One of her early influences was Mr Dharsey, her mathematics teacher and mentor in high school. “He always kept track of my academic growth and development as I progressed through high school and into university,” she says.
Prof Roman has worked at UWC in various roles, including Doctoral Student Support Coordinator, part-time lecturer in the Department of Psychology, Head of the Master’s in Child and Family Studies Programme, and Chair of the Department of Social Work. She was the Head of the Child and Family Studies Unit between 2008 and 2017 and has won the Chancellor’s Outstanding Alumni Award in Health Sciences and the Academic Achiever Award for an established researcher at UWC.
Allan is a public finance and local economic development (LED) expert with a wide range of experience in management roles. He lectures at the School of Government on fi nance and human resource management, LED, Integrated Development Plans, budgeting and reporting.
Reflecting on a satisfying career at UWC, Prof Roman says: “I love that I get to work in the same institution that developed and enhanced my growth in education and research and that I am now able to help others grow in research, teaching, knowledge and skills, and enhance their capabilities to carve their own paths and niches in family science to create better worlds for children, families and communities.”
