Spotlight on our departing Student Council President and outgoing Head Girl and Boy

This last weekend saw us saying goodbye to an extraordinary class full of incredibly confident, successful and responsible individuals. But for the purposes of this article, we would like to shine the spotlight on our three departing leaders. Find out what they achieved whilst in the School and what they are going on to do next.

Marvin Onwukwe – Head Boy (January 2017- December 2018)

It was not surprising that Marvin was elected into the position of head boy as he is such an inspirational leader: a young man of integrity, who leads through example.  The kind of leader we all hope to be led by. He is one of the most well-rounded individuals that we have ever had in our school. He is a talented sportsman, renowned for his gritty determination in long distance running, holding records for 1500m and 800m. He has competed for the school both nationally and internationally in rugby, football, athletics, cross country and basketball and received a range of awards including the ‘Sportsman of the Year’ Award twice. But it is not just his sporting success that stands out, it is the fact that he is such an exemplary sportsman that makes him exceptional: he is polite to his opponents and encouraging and motivational to his team. He never loses his temper, however frustrated he may feel. He is also academically successful, with a string of A grades to his name: Hard work, perfect attendance and never missing a deadline all play a part in his success. Few people are great on the sports field, talented in athletics and equally as dazzling in the Arts. Yet Marvin is just this: He has performed in 7 school plays and most notably as Eric in An Inspector Calls: learnt all his lines and attended all the afterschool rehearsals, on top of studying for his A levels; he is an impressive dancer;  gained a distinction in his LAMDA grade 8 Public Speaking and won an award for his inspirational speaking at the MUN special summit.  Marvin always gives his best and never gives up. This determination, focus and drive were seen in his successful summit of Meru and Kilimanjaro and in the way he led his team of prefects last year. His successes were recognized when he was awarded the Head teacher’s Award twice.

We are very proud of Marvin and the positive mark he has left on the school. He is going to study Biological Science in the University of Maryland in the USA. I predict that he will later serve his country is a very senior position in the future.  

 Ttanya Sachdev – Head Girl  (January 2017- December 2018)

Although on a first meeting, Ttanya may appear quiet, shy and retiring, she is anything but! Her powerful speech for the position of Head Girl, left no doubt in anyone’s mind, that she was a force to be reckoned with and her ascent up to the summit of Kilimanjaro showed her grit and determination. Her approach to her Business classes showed her to be diligent, focused and very organized. She never missed a deadline and she always gave her best. As a result, she scored distinctions for every unit that she worked for and gained a distinction * overall. She is a natural leader, able to motivate others, working under her, as seen in the School Enterprise Challenge. Through this competition, her team won $1000 for the school with their social enterprise project, making bags from scraps of material; she also gave up her time to work in the school tuck shop, serving others over the year and keeping meticulous accounts and in between all this, she set up a very successful confectionary business. She impressed her bosses in Nissan Kenya with her professionalism and work ethic during her week of work experience and she impressed all of us in her planning of the women empowerment forum dubbed ‘Sisterhood’ where she, along with some other sixth formers trained 200 girls from our local schools on entrepreneurship, self-esteem and aspirational career paths.  Possibly it was these traits that were recognized in the prestigious BTEC International Award for being the best Business and Enterprise student in the world.

Ttanya’s quiet and humble approach to leadership has inspired many students and staff in our school and we will all really miss her. She is going to the UK to study Business Administration and we have no doubt whatsoever that she will own a very successful business in the not-too-distant future.

Kauther Ali – School Council President (January 2017- December 2018)

Kauther has been one of those rare students who demonstrates maturity, amazing confidence and complete independence.  Her organization skills are second to none and she has wonderful creative problem strategies. These skills made her a strong and powerful student council president. She faced student issue head on and got things done. Kauther has been very proactive and tenacious. When she sets her mind on doing something, she will ensure it gets done. She is compassionate and empathetic and as a result she has really pushed the ‘Scholarship Fund’. Through her hard work and single-mindedness, she led a number of fund raising events to collect over $3000 towards Joseph and Phillipo’s scholarship fund. The ‘Colour Fest’ was her brainchild and inspite of all the resistance she faced, she pulled off an amazingly successful event. She came out of this as a ‘determined mobilizer’. In spite of all her whole school responsibilities, Kauther’s academic work never suffered: she put hours of work into her studies in the library, whilst remaining cheerful and helpful at the same time.

Kauther’s maturity and responsibility has made a real difference to our school, especially in what she has achieved for others. As a result, I have no doubt that she will go on to be a very capable and successful Doctor. She is going to The University of Nairobi to study Medicine.