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Constantly curious

Michelline Nawatises



Albertine Shipena joined Telecom Namibia in June of 2013 as an engineer in training and now serves as a project engineer.

Her day to day responsibilities include building, designing and maintaining Telecom Namibia's core network, peering with partners to bring content closer to customers faster and effectively, network re-engineering, designing technical solutions for customers, installation, configuration and the testing of complex routed LAN and WLAN networks.

She graduated from Nust and is also registered with the Engineering Council of Namibia (ECN), where she also serves as a board member.

“I happen to be very privileged to work alongside very intelligent, driven and hardworking colleagues. I have had the opportunity to learn from them; we work as a team”, she explains.

Shipena further sees herself becoming a technical manager one day.

She has always been an overachiever - adaptable, resilient, driven and consistent - and a goal-oriented person, while staying undefined and curious.

“The world is changing rapidly that the only way to survive, thrive, inspire and adjust is to have a deep and constant level of curiosity. Change has become our only constant,” she says.

Shipena was fortunate to be awarded government grants to cover her school and tertiary education fees, but this did not save her from going to bed with an empty stomach, or from not knowing where tomorrow's meal would come from.

“I experienced a number of circumstances/setbacks in my life, but that was never going to define me or my future. My frame of mind was always focused on making an impact in society and contributing greatly to the country's economic dynamics,” she says.

Shipena believes that it is our duty as people sharing this world to make our future better, because the future is not only ours.

“Our grandchildren should be proud of us one day when they look back and find how hard we worked to make the world a better place.

“Trusting God's timing is the best thing you can ever do for yourself. Not everyone is going to make it, just make sure you are not part of that statistic. People will try to discourage you and tell you who and what you can or cannot be, but I tell you now, the true measure of who you can be is within you; you are your own roadblock.

“When you feel like giving up, that is when you should try harder. Nothing will be easy; don't expect things to be handed to you on a silver platter. The world is not fair and nobody owes you anything,” she says.

Shipena is a middle child from a family of eight children. She is a strong advocate for sisterhood and lives to empower others, especially woman, to pursue greatness.