Presenter.Talking about from dreaming of the stage as a child, Professor Fanelwa Ngece-Ajayi has built a celebrated career in science. Now she is turning that unexpected change of path into a mission to open doors for the next generation.Before Professor Fanelwa Ngece-Ajayi became a scientist, researcher, educator and community leader, she was a young girl from Khayelitsha who dreamed of becoming an actor.At school, she loved drama. Then came an experience that seemed to confirm where her future lay: a trip to the Baxter Theatre to watch University of Cape Town students perform Shakespeare’s King Lear, which she had been studying in class.Her mother, however, was not convinced that acting would offer the promise of a successful career or a good life.And so, the curtain came down on her acting ambitions. It would not be the last time life took Prof Ngece-Ajayi in a direction she had not anticipated.Today, she is a C2-rated Professor of Physical Chemistry and Deputy Dean of Research and Innovation in the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of the Western Cape (UWC).