MELIORES
SACRED HEART COLLEGE MARIST OBS EDUCATION WITH WITH HEART HEART THAT THAT KNOWS KNOWS NO NO BOUNDS BOUNDS
J U N EJUNE E D IEDITION T I O N 22019 015
Family Spirit | A Passion for Work | Simplicity | Presence | In the Way of Mary
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The Meliores, and our Alumni, now have their own logo! The logo has been designed by Kgomotso Mautloa, a 2003 Sacred Heart College graduate. The significance of the M in the logo is the word Meliores, which means more than simply ‘better’. It can mean ‘more fully’ or ‘to make better’. Meliora can be translated to mean ‘good’, ‘honest’, ‘brave’ or ‘kind’. Furthermore, the M represents the word Marist, which connects us as a family. The opening gates behind the M, traced from the school’s beautiful main gate, imply that our alumni are always welcome. Kgomotso and his team at Green Robot Design (greenrobot.co.za) created a truly timeless icon; one that shows true insight. “The most exciting and probably most thrilling part of my career as the Creative Director at Green Robot Design is that I create new work every day. No one day is the same. That’s what gets me up in the morning,” said Kgomotso, giving us a glimpse into his studio life. “The endless opportunity to give art life and to craft work that people will see and hopefully enjoy pushes me to do better.” See our November 2014 edition for the full story.
Who’s Who ALUMNI COMMUNICATIONS Ellen Howell Alumni Relationship Manager alumni@sacredheart.co.za
LAYOUT AND DESIGN Cherry Bullard CJ Graphics
THANKS TO
the alumni, parents, learners and staff who contributed to this edition.
MELIORES
is owned and published by Sacred Heart College. The authors and contributors reserve their rights in regard to the copyright of their work. No part of this work may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means without the written consent of Sacred Heart College.
Contents A
2 i messages from our team A Note from the Head of College I 2 A Note from the Alumni Manager I 2
3 i Sacred Heart News
Siyabonga is Debating Champ MOPFEST 2019 Matrics 2019 Pre-School Activities Primary School Activities World Read Aloud Day, 1 February 2019 Sacred Heart journos are ready for Amsterdam
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3 4 5 6 7 8 9
11 i connecting with alumni
Postbox John Charles Daly Ivan Cassidy – Class of 1950 Fasiha Hassan – Class of 2011 Nthabiseng Fela Seane – Class of 2013 Jordyn Walker Alumni Banners Get involved
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26 i contact details
Pre-Primary and Primary School I 26 High School I 27
MESSAGES FROM OUR TEAM a Note from the Head of college
Dear Alumni We are excited that our solar installation is complete and generating 40% of the power needs of the College. I would like to thank those of you who sponsored one of the cells to earn income for our scholarship fund. I also want to thank those of you who have signed up for our 130 campaign and encourage the rest of you to consider doing this. Every bit of money donated goes directly to supporting children who deserve to be here and can change the world as you have done, if we just give them the opportunity to experience a Sacred Heart education. I am also pleased to announce that the charitable foundation that we have established in the USA is starting to bear fruit and we have raised R494 000 so far this year for Three2Six and for scholarships. If you have any contacts or friends in the USA that we could approach for support, please get in touch with foundation@sacredheart.co.za urgently and arrange an introduction for us. Fundraising is entirely based on relationships and to succeed in this arena one often needs to know the right person or be introduced at the right time. This is one of the greatest services you can offer as alumni of the College. My tenure as Head of College will be coming to an end in May of this year and I would like to thank all the students I have personally met in my 16 years. I am very proud of you and of what you have become. Colin Northmore June 2018
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a Note from the alumni manager
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he Alumni network is growing each year as another class matriculates and joins the Alumni family and others reconnect with the school for various reasons. Last week I was surprised by a visit from Scottness Smith and Wandile Molebatsi. I have read about them on social media and have even published Wandile Molebatsi’s story in the July 2013 Meliores issue but have never met them in person. So, when I met them in person it was with great joy and delight. This is what makes my job a joy. So, if you have a free day, come and visit your old school and see how it has changed. You are part of the foundation that has built this school to what it is today, so continue making us proud so that the next generations can follow in your footsteps. Together, we are the difference!
Ellen Howell alumni@sacredheart.co.za
SACRED HEART NEWS Siyabonga is Debating champ
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acred Heart College’s debating team started the year on a high note. Grade 12 learner Siyabonga Nxumalo together with English and Business Studies teacher Itumeleng Mohanoe attended the Eurasian Schools Debating Championship in Turkey recently. Mohanoe was chief adjudicator of the Eurasian Schools Debating Championship. He was in charge of overseeing the chief judges’ panel and was also responsible for other factors, such as motion setting and equity issues. Siyabonga was a deployed speaker for the National Greek Team, a first for Sacred Heart College. He was named the 2019 Eurasian Schools Debating Champion. “I’m humbled. I was not expecting it. When an opportunity presented itself to be part of the Greek team, I grabbed it,” said Siyabonga.
He said winning has boosted his confidence. “I was not sure if I was good enough to win and when I did I was proud of myself,” said Siyabonga. The EXPRESS asked Siyabonga what makes a good speaker. “You must be committed and a good coach and a good team player. Be a good listener because you need to know how you are going to argue your point and be positive and confident, “said Siyabonga. “Debate is mind challenging. You learn how to state your case without getting emotional or attached to the subject and in the process you learn something,” said Siyabonga. Debating coach Mohanoe said when he told him about being a deployed speaker he was nervous. “I knew he would doubt himself, but I also knew he could deliver and winning was the cherry on top,” said Mohanoe
Sacred Heart College Grade 12 learner Siyabonga Nxumalo and English and Business Studies teacher and debating coach Itumeleng Mohanoe attended the Eurasian School Debating Championship.
Article published by Joburg East Express on 5 February 2019
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SACRED HEART NEWS moPFeSt 2019
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he 7th and 8th of March 2019 was the Matric Original Plays Festival (MOPFest). This cross grade and learner driven integrated project is a firm favourite amongst the Drama students. This year the Grade 11 Arts students were invited to design the set and costumes for the plays. Having the arts students on board really elevated the production value of all three plays. “It Seemed the Better Way” written and directed by Ada Griller, delved into the lives of members of a dysfunctional family. It commented on society’s tendency to turn a blind eye when witnessing something seriously atrocious whilst giving insight on the effect that sexual abuse has on people, especially children. “Pandora’s Box” written and directed by Tomas Gavriel and Abongile Mzondeki was set in a futuristic South Africa where ‘The System’ is what runs the streets and the action of
the people, a paranoid mother confines her children, secluding them from the rest of the world and deliberately teaching them the wrong meaning of words. ‘Pandora’s Box’ emphasizes the power and strength that words have on the world that we live in. In “Mgcineni Noki Has Fallen” politics may instigate polarising reactions of excitement or dread. South Africa seems to be perpetually in a state of instability - ascribed to a myriad of issues in our government. ‘Mgcineni Noki Has Fallen’ is a piece of theatre that within its embrace holds hours of dedication and hard work - with a head of thorns that forces the audience to contemplate what it has witnessed.
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SACRED HEART NEWS matrics 2019 Zanzi matsebula Matrics 2k19
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o much runs through my mind when thinking about the Grade 12s of 2019. This is one special grade if I do say so myself. We’re funny, honest, disrespectful, fun, naughty, and so much more. But one thing about us that I think is very important, is that we’re a family. We may be a small group, and this small group may be broken up into even smaller cliques, but we can always come together and love each other, have fun with each other, and laugh together. Come to think of it, we’ve actually been through a lot together. From being the naughtiest Grade 8s, to being the best matrics I’ve ever come across. I’m not being cocky or anything, but within this group we have a range of amazing people. Our sports women and men, our musicians, our dancers, our artists, our comedians, our smarties, our quiet ones, our loud ones, our mean ones, straight forward ones. These traits add to our personalities, and it is because of these traits that we are the finest.
Yes, we learn a lot at school. But we have learnt just as much from each other. Friends are teachers. Learning that it’s okay to fall because we’ll always be there to pick each other up, learning that it’s okay to make mistakes because we always have each other’s backs. Learning that it’s okay to cry because we’ll always provide a shoulder to lean on. Nobody can top us. This is not just a grade, it’s a gift. And it makes me so sad to think that this is our final year together and this gift won’t last long. It makes me so sad to think that the only thing that will be holding most of us together next year is our memories. It’s so scary knowing that all this is about to change. But so many people have made the change and adapted lifestyles, so it can’t be that difficult, right? All the matrics will always have a special place in my heart because I know for a fact that we’ve all changed each other’s lives in some way, and for the better. All love to the matrics of 2019.
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SACRED HEART NEWS Pre-School activities easter egg Hunt
Pancake Day
Fire and ice
Hooked on Books
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SACRED HEART NEWS Primary School activities 1st Day of School
Ringing the Bell
Zip Lining canopy tour
Visiting a cold Drink Factory
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SACRED HEART NEWS World Read aloud Day, 1 February 2019
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t was with great anticipation that Gr 3B awaited the arrival of dad Griffin Shea to read to our class for World Read Aloud Day. The children enjoyed listening to “Bear Snores On” and enthusiastically discussed the dinosaurs created by “Flip-o-Stories”. Reading is a vital part of life and brings immense enjoyment and freedom to everyone. It opens the world, allowing one’s imagination to explore unknown adventures. Thank you to Griffin for making the day so special. Keep on reading, everyone. Cheryl Bacalhau Grade 3B teacher
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SACRED HEART NEWS Sacred Heart journos are ready for amsterdam
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ive learners from Sacred Heart College were selected to attend the International ChildPress Meeting in Amsterdam from April 25 to 27. The five learners who were chosen to attend he international meeting are Zazi Dana, Tanyaradza Kaseke, Lukas van Garderen, Cassidi Opperman and Annarosa Payne. ChildPress is an international collaboration of press club groups. Its aim is to support children to create and publish content that affects children. In collaboration with Bright Media, ChildPress.org International was able to seek and motivate South African children who want their voices to be heard and who are keen to join the international community of child journalists. “Children have stories to tell and the whole idea behind ChildPress is to encourage children to tell their stories in their own way and views,” said Bright Media founder and director Ingrid Bruynse.
Bright Media focuses on the development of projects to address gaps and initiatives that build bridges, linking divided worlds. “I love reading and trying new things. I saw this as an opportunity to learn something new and share my stories. I feel children have a lot to say, they just do not have the platform,” shared Zazi. Tanyaradza said for as long she could remember she wanted to study journalism. Some of the learners have been doing interesting documentaries to highlight issues happening in society. “I like telling stories through photography and film. I had an opportunity to tell the story of informal recyclers who do their collection in our area. It allowed me to understand the challenges they face every day,” said Lukas.
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He said this meeting will be an opportunity to learn more in the field of journalism.
partner to facilitate the setting up of ChildPress SouthAfrica,” said Ingrid.
Cassidi is equally excited about the opportunity.” I hope to learn a lot from other child journalists. I started writing because I feel there are a number of issues that need to be told by children because there are issues that affect us in different forms, “said Cassidi.
She said the meeting will offer the learners the opportunity to collaborate, learn journalism, writing and interviewing skills and share and bring back the best practice for local press clubs.
“This was a Europe initiative and since February, Bright Media has been tasked as a
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Article published by Joburg East Express on 23 April, 2019 written by Busi Vilakazi
CONNECTING WITH ALUMNI Let us know anything that you want to share with us: email: alumni@sacredheart.co.za Facebook: www.facebook.com/shcalum
Dear Ellen Thank you for the fabulous tour you gave us when I recently visited South Africa. Not having been back to the school since my wedding in the chapel in 2000 it was truly special to return to show my children where I went to school spending so many happy years. It was particularly special to see the trophy cabinet and hunt down trophies with my name on! Attached please find a picture of me that was taken in my Observatory home in 1993 after the matric valedictory Service. I had forgotten how big this special shield was. What an honour and privilege to have won this special award. I was the third person to take home this award and it was special to see the names of many others who have taken it home over the years. The Servium award for leadership loyalty and service. Hopefully I am still a deserving recipient even after 26 years later! Kind regards Nicole Dear Nicole Thank you for coming back to Sacred Heart and visiting us and sharing your memories with your family. It was a pleasure meeting you all. Take care. Ellen
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JOHN CHARLES DALY Well known radio and television news correspondent
Best known as the host and moderator of the CBS television panel show ‘What’s My Line?’
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ohn Daly was born on 20 February 1914 in Johannesburg, where his American father worked as a geologist. While he was in Johannesburg, John attended Marist Brothers College (Koch Street). Unfortunately, his father died of tropical fever in 1923 and due to that his mother moved the family back to Boston, Massachusetts. John Daly continued his education at Tilton School in Tilton, New Hampshire, from which he graduated in 1930. After two years at Boston College, lack of funds forced him to discontinue his medical studies in 1933. He started his career in 1937 as a correspondent and news analyst for a radio station and later became an American radio and television personality, CBS News broadcast journalist, ABC News executive and TV anchor and a game show host, best known as the host and moderator of the CBS television panel show ‘What’s My Line?’
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In World War II, he was the first national correspondent to report the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as covering much of the front-line news from Europe and North Africa. By the time of his resignation he had won virtually every major award for distinguished radio and television reporting, including in 1954 the George Foster Peabody Award, the Sylvania Award, and an Emmy. The 1956 and 1957 Peabody Awards were presented to “John Daly and associates”. John Charles Daly passed away on the 24 February at the age of 77.
CLASS OF 1950
IVAN CASSIDY
68 years on....
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eet Mr Ivan Cassidy, who was born in 1932 and is 86. As a member of the class of 1950, he is among our oldest living alumni Meeting Ivan and Maureen Cassidy was only going to happen once they were in their 80s, really. Before this time, this power couple would simply have been too busy! Mr Cassidy spent his professional career as an accountant, then property developer, and Mrs Cassidy went back to school at age 49 to begin her second career as a Montessori teacher. Before that, she cared for the couple’s six children. She retired at 78. “It’s only now that we have time for crossword puzzles and knitting,” she jokes. And golfing… Sacred Heart College re-met Mr Cassidy at our charity golf day on 2 November 2018, when his second-born daughter, Roslyn, thought her father, a keen golfer, would enjoy the experience. And indeed, we were delighted to meet a senior alumnus. We were very eager to hear his tales and imbibe some of the institutional knowledge and memories that an alumnus from the early days brings with him. class of 1950 “We had two classes per grade. I was in the Matric A class,” recalls Mr Cassidy, showing his
Matric certificate and his class picture, which he has brought with him. “There was also a Matric B class. I was usually a good scholar and I was surprised only to receive a second-class matriculation pass, but I never pursued it or asked for a remark or anything. I just remember that it was odd.” Mr Cassidy took Latin, one of the two options for a compulsory additional language. The other was Hebrew – to cater for the large number of Jewish students who attended the college in those days. a benefited student Mr Cassidy’s story of how he got to Marist Brothers Observatory, as the school was then known, is fascinating. Mr Cassidy’s father, Herbert, was the son of an Afrikaans mother (surname Coertzen) and Irish father, who was baptised at Belgravia, according to the baptismal certificate, which Mr Cassidy managed to track down. The family was at that stage of the Dutch Reformed church. Herbert married Mr Cassidy’s mother, Anna Magdalena Nel. Mr Cassidy picks up the story: “I was a benefited scholar at Marist Brothers. My
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parents were poor, working class, and couldn’t afford to send me to a private school. We lived in Brixton, and my father was a stoker on the railways.” Mr Cassidy shows us a picture from 1933 of his father, the loco driver, on a train that had fallen over. “My elder sister Beryl was quite ill when she was born. My parents sent for the predikant to come baptise her at home [this was common practice if parents feared for the life of their newborn], but he wouldn’t come. So my father turned to Fr Peron, the parish priest at Mayfair, and asked him to come baptise her. Fr Peron agreed, but told my parents that they now had an obligation to bring their children up Catholic,” Mr Cassidy recalls. And so it was. When it came time to school their children, the family turned once more to Fr Peron. Beryl was sent to the End Street Convent with his assistance. And in 1943, at age 11, Ivan was able to come to Marist Brothers, with Fr Peron arranging the scholarship. The junior classes were at that stage located at Koch Street. “I came to the Obs campus in 1947 for std 7 onwards,” Mr Cassidy says. “I remember I had to take two trams to get to Koch Street, and to get from Brixton to Observatory I used a tram to come into town and then a bus to Louis Botha Avenue. Then there was a stairway from Louis Botha to Eckstein Street.” We spend some time wondering whether the stairway is still accessible to the public. “My father died young, at 49, of a heart attack. But he kept his promise to Fr Peron, and he even converted to Catholicism at 45!” Blazer issues Mr Cassidy has a picture of his 1943 class. He is easily identifiable: he is the only child without a blazer in the picture. (The picture is reproduced in The Maristonian centenary edition 18891989.) His parents could not afford one.
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“A blazer would have cost about 2 pounds 5 shillings,’ says Mr Cassidy. “That was the money we used before the government introduced decimalisation (rands and cents) in 1962.” What a contrast with today, where children can receive a blazer from Janet Balchin’s secondhand store next to the tuck shop for R50, and probably for free if money is tight. In any case, nowadays we would ask any child who had forgotten their blazer on picture day to borrow a friend’s for the duration of the photo. Times and norms change. Koch Street Nevertheless, Mr Cassidy says, his education was “very privileged”. He considers himself fortunate to have studied here and remembers his best friend Denys Hayden with great fondness. In fact, the two men now both live in the San Sereno retirement community in Bryanston. “At Koch St, the man who taught us football was Brother Gustav. We played on a tarmac surface inside the tiny quadrangle of the school’s tiny grounds. I think that school sat on half an acre, whereas the Observatory grounds were 32 acres [can we confirm these sizes?]” “When we were at school, the convention was that every Brother was given a nickname,” Mr Cassidy continues. “Brother Raymond was the principal in 1950 – his nickname was Coss, short for Cossack, because he was Russian. Brother Aquinas was the head of the Koch St campus. His nickname was Bulldog because he was fierce.” Everything was much rarer in those days. “The spoilt kids got Coca-Cola in their lunch boxes. If we bought anything from the tuck shop, it was jawbreakers or toffee apples. In 1943 at Koch St, we used to go outside and cross the road into the Defence Force’s Union Grounds. You could get a Perks pie for 1 (shilling) and a tiekie/ tickey.”
World at war Mr Cassidy lived through the years of the Second World War 1939-1945. He remembers the war years as hard ones when many fathers went “up North” (many South African volunteers were posted to Egypt to fight the German General Rommel there). “Many didn’t return.” The Cassidys also recall the blackouts, where windows were covered with dark material to make Johannesburg harder to spot for aircraft bombers. (The war was never fought on South African soil but this was a precaution, more commonly practised in seaside towns with harbours so as not to give away the positions of docked ships.) “Everything was rationed, and we received government-issue brown flour. This was not popular at the time and everybody preferred white bread. Almost every house had a big sieve, which we used to separate the bran from the white flour. And do you know what we used to do? We used to feed our chickens the bran! It was illegal, but everybody did it anyway,” Mrs Cassidy laughs. Dread disease Today, we tend to take medical advances for
granted. But Mr Cassidy had a brother, Michael, who was eight years younger than himself, and who was born extremely prematurely weighing only one pound (about half a kilogram). These days, such a small baby would spend months in intensive care and only be allowed to leave once it has grown to about 2kg. Against all odds, Michael survived, but Mr Cassidy remembers his mother still feeding him breastmilk from an ear dropper at three years old. He finally walked at 5. At 7, he contracted polio in the epidemic of 1947. These days, we are all vaccinated against this horrible and dangerous disease, which claimed many children’s lives, and left others partially paralysed and with respiratory problems. But Michael survived. Mr Cassidy shows us a picture (also from The Maristonian, I think) of Michael, on the far right, acting as scholar patrol on the Koch Street campus. Racial segregation In 1950, the school was an all-boys school and it was supposed to enforce the racially segregated education policies of the Nationalist government, which had come to power in 1948. Nevertheless, Mr Cassidy recalls that Coloured and Chinese boys attended the school, and that this was a source of conflict with the Transvaal education administration authorities. “But the Brothers ignored them,” says Mr Cassidy. “For instance, Peter Tim was in my class, his parents had a café in Bez Valley. They were Chinese. And we had about 25% Jewish boys. Boris Livshitz from our class is still alive and lives in Emerald Woods, I think.” Another picture from The Maristonian Centenary page 43 coincidentally shows Fr Peron, with the Transvaal administrator of education holding forth at a long table, and one of the individuals pictured is Joe Richardson, for whom Mr Cassidy articled in his accounting firm later.)
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“We had three vocations who became priests from my year or thereabouts,” remembers Mr Cassidy. “Norman Maroun became the Florida parish priest, Garth Michelson ended up in the Cape and Mario Ceruti (possibly from the year below me) went to Marianhill in KZN.” “Observatory was a very fancy area at the time. We had boarders here at school too – a small group of about 30 or 40 boarders. They came mainly from Mozambique, Portuguese boys whose families sent them from what was then known as Lorenzo Marques (Maputo).” “I had happy school days,” says Mr Cassidy. “Oh, one naughty thing we did, we used to pinch the Brothers’ fruit from the Orchard, which really was an orchard at the time. They had lovely yellow peaches. I got caught by Brother Patrick one day, and I surely got 6 cuts from Coss the following day.” Mr Cassidy was a keen sportsman. “I played first team cricket in std 8 in 1948 (not after that). Brother Ralph was our coach and we called him Johnny, after the heavyweight boxing champ Johnny Ralph!” “I enjoyed rugby, and we played in a league with Jeppe, KES, St John’s and Helpmekaar. I enjoyed rugby but my father wasn’t a huge fan. He preferred to watch me play soccer – I played for Crown Mines club.” Later life “After school, I registered with the Government Mines Training School. They would put us through university to become geologists or mining engineers or whatever. We got a salary of 50 pounds a month! My father as a loco driver earned only 80 pounds by the end of his career. So that was a lot of money and I was keen, but my father was dead set against it. So in 1 January 1951 I went to Crown Mines and I resigned. I spoke to Br Coss and told him I couldn’t go to the mines. He arranged
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my apprenticeship with Joe Richardson as a trainee accountant. I earned 5 guineas (5 pound 5 shillings) in my first job… “We got married in 1956 as I finished my articles. The month we got married, I was earning 26 pounds a month as a 5th year articled clerk and Maureen was earning 42 pounds a month as a bank manager’s secretary. Later on, I was a financial director of a company in Krugersdorp, I earned R600 a month and that was enough to have 6 children in private schools!” I hated accounting and it was no surprise I left to go into property. First I joined an estate agency, then became a property developer. We did a lot of work developing the industrial parts of the Honeydew area. I developed the original Laser Park.”
1950 Maristonian
CLASS OF 2011
FASIHA HASSAN Student Peace Prize Winner
Fasiha is now 24 years old with a string of awards, achievements and plans for the future!
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asiha is 24 years old. She is a graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand with a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Laws degrees. Fasiha is also a recipient of Golden Key International Honors Society for excellence in academics. She served as the very first womxn chairperson of the Muslim Students’ Association in 2015 and was also a leader of the Progressive Youth Alliance at Wits University during the same year. Fasiha was elected as the Academic Officer of the Wits Student Representative Council for the 2014/2015 term, and was later elected as the Wits SRC Secretary General last year (2015/2016 term). On the 14th of October 2015 and again in 2016, Fasiha and other students put their bodies on the line in the name of free education and to fight against fee increments. Little did they know that they would change the course of history, or reignite the fighting spirit of young people. Fasiha is at the forefront the #FeesMustFall and #EndOutsourcing movements at institutions of higher learning. She has also featured in various
media and debating platforms representing the youth of South Africa in the fight for free, quality and decolonized education. Fasiha served as the Deputy Secretary General of the South African Union of Students (SAUS) from 2016 – 2018. She was also elected as the Provincial Treasurer of the South African Students’ Congress (SASCO) in Gauteng during the same time. Currently, Fasiha is the Deputy President of the South African Union of Students (SAUS) as well as the chairperson of her Youth League branch in Ward 58, Zone 6 of the Greater Johannesburg Region. Fasiha is currently preparing to study a Masters in Law (LLM) in international human rights law with the ultimate goal of gaining the necessary skills to materially change the lives of the people of South Africa. She also won the Student Peace Prize for her “nonviolent efforts towards gaining equal access to higher education” on October 9 2018.
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CLASS OF 2013
NTHABISENG FELA SEANE this is her story
I remember the first time I walked into this big, historical building with my broken English and a dream of wanting to be a “Poetrian”, Legit.
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imple but Life-changing encounters that sometimes go unnoticed.
I grew up in the dusty rocky village of Moshana in the Northwest. In 2003 I lost my grandmother and was forced to join my mom here in Johannesburg. In 2003 I resumed my primary school at Carter Primary school in Alexandra Township, so it’s clear – I’m a kasi girl from “Gomorah”. I was top of my class in Grade 6 and was offered an opportunity to write a scholarship exam for Sacred Heart College. I remember the first time I walked into this big, historical building with my broken English and a dream of wanting to be a “Poetrian”, Legit. I wanted to be a Gcina Mhlophe or a Jefferson but wasn’t quite sure if that was a poetrian / poetrician or poetress. Nonetheless, I wrote an exam and was offered a scholarship at Sacred Heart College. I did not only get extra English classes to define a poet but was also given: new school uniform, shoes,
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a laptop and data (First time I had ever used a laptop), transport and tuckshop money, food parcels to take home weekly from the tuckshop ladies and more than a handful of opportunities, and not once did I feel undeserving, unworthy or not good enough. Yes, I did notice the difference, that every after school other kids would be picked up in expensive cars by their parents, parents I recognised from TV, I also realised that I was now given the same opportunity, dealt the same cards as those of my peers, to make a difference and define my future. At this point, I could no longer look to poverty, family issues, lack of support or financial backing as an excuse for my failure. It was this very opportunity that said, now! play your cards. I was challenged to redefine what it means to be me, it allowed me to dream beyond a pay check and a nice car to get out of the township – I wanted to make a difference in the world, I wanted to be a POET! I gained a support structure and the greatest family that I still hold so dear to me till today. I had mothers who even
after matric couldn’t stop worrying and checking in, teachers who stayed late nights to get me up to speed with my education, teachers and the support staff who were there for every teardrop to lift me up and solve my problems. Not once did I feel alone or run out of data. (Very important.) When I say I’m standing on the shoulders of giants, I mean it. All this to say, I spend my time motivating and fundraising for scholarships at Sacred Heart College, because more than anything, I believe in giving young people a different view, a bigger dream and a shot at this life thing. So that they will never have to say “ I failed because I did not have . . . “
All this to say, I spend my time motivating and fundraising for scholarships at Sacred Heart College, because more than anything, I believe in giving young people a different view, a bigger dream and a shot at this life thing.
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CLASS OF 2017
JORDYN WALKER 2nd year student at Wits
My first year out of school has been exhilarating and eyeopening, but not without its challenges.
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n 2018, I began my first year studying a Bachelor of Accounting Science at Wits University. My first year out of school has been exhilarating and eye-opening, but not without its challenges. Tertiary education is a privilege and I spent the year immersing myself in learning new things, in the company of lecturers and students from all parts of South Africa, and beyond. Nevertheless, conversation again turned to the question of funding for education and protests started on campus regarding residence fees and Fees Must Fall.
and long queues to consult with lecturers has made me long for the close-knit community that is developed in school. Also, my chosen degree is very business and finance orientated, leaving very little opportunity for exploration of other fields – I miss the wide curriculum offered to students in high school, especially being able to study interesting and vital subjects such as History and languages.
I truly believe that my years as a student at Sacred Heart College have adequately prepared me for these real-world scenarios – from the diverse student body, to the culture of listening to and respecting all opinions and points of view, SHC is fundamental in moulding students who can cope in the 21st century.
I miss the wide curriculum offered to students in high school, especially being able to study interesting and vital subjects such as History and languages.
Ultimately, I still long for the comfort of high school days. The shock of large and often crowded classrooms coupled with a sprawling campus
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The transition to university life has also meant re-constructing my life outside of the classroom. University study has allowed me to have a more hands on approach to accounting and I was fortunate to be able to attend the vacation work programme at Price Waterhouse Coopers in the July holidays. The change has also meant that I have been able to experience the wonder of the Marist community in a different capacity – not only am I able to reconnect on a regular basis with Sacred Heart alumni from my grade and those before and after me, I was also fortunate to join the Marist Youth group. I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to attend the monthly dinners with other Young Marists, as well as to participate in the Saturday Service Programme, providing homework support and cultural and sporting activities for alumni of the Three2Six programme. I also attended the Marist Young Adults retreat to Saint Lucia in August, where we spent the week reflecting and looking towards the future of the group.
The transition to university life has also meant re-constructing my life outside of the classroom.
In a nutshell, my first year out of school has been busy, enlightening and at times difficult, but I have relished being able to expand my knowledge and develop my passion. I look forward to continued involvement in the Marist Youth group as well as other community programmes in 2019 and beyond.
I look forward to continued involvement in the Marist Youth group as well as other community programmes in 2019 and beyond.
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