This is my story from a small township to one of the best schools in South Africa. Amanda is a 14 year old girl from a township called Vlakfontein in the South of Johannesburg.
I currently go to Rhenish Girls
High School in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape. The environment is very different from where I come from.
I found out about the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation
(AGOF) scholarship from my teacher at Kiasha Park Primary School. She asked me to bring my mother to school. So the following day I came with my mother, she explained to us basic information about the scholarship and the application process. This was a lifetime opportunity for me.
We had two days to submit the application before closing, so everything was rushed but yet we managed to hand in the application in time.
One week later I received a message that I had made it through the next round. I was tasked with an assignment which involved me making a difference in my community which I had to add in the interview. I was challenged to think in ways different to what I usually do, this caused me to have a different perspective on things in everyday life. After the assignment I was selected to attend the selection camp where we met interesting individuals that aspire to things which I also hope to achieve.
Amanda Kethwa
From a Township to one of the Top Schools in South Africa
By Dumi Mbona
Tag My School Magazine//Cover Story//1st issue
It was a great experience to be able to work with like-minded people in this camp. Sadly I was not awarded the scholarship. This was an unbelievable painful setback. I felt like a failure. My mother and I thought that we had secured the scholarship after all the assignments, interviews and being selected to a camp in Capetown. When we received the news that I was not selected for Scholarship we were devastated. Having not applied in any other high school here in Joburg because my hope was to secure this scholarship, things did not look good.
But not all was lost, because I was offered a second chance by Standard Bank Tutuwa Community Foundation an organization that is in partnership with AGOF. Standard Bank Tutuwa Community Fouindation introduced themselves via an email and they told me that they will arrange for me to go for an interview at Rhenish Girls High in Stellenbosch with all expenses paid.
After a successful interview at Rhenish Girls High
School, Standard Bank Tutuwa Community Foundation approved my scholarship.
When I first go to Rhenish, I couldn’t believe that this was going to be my school.
July - September 2017
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