‘Hard work pays off’

AS the St Augustine Girls’ High School (SAGHS) celebrated an almost perfect record in CSEC and CAPE results at their graduation at the school on Evans Street, Curepe, valedictorian Deborah Oduwegwu congratulated her classmates and encouraged them to continue being themselves and striving for excellence.

On Thursday, Oduwegwu
recounted how stressful school was in the last year before exams, but expressed pride in herself and her schoolmates, having completed exams and being ready to move on to the next phase in life. “Every day at least one form 5 student would say something like: ‘Less than 100 days till CSEC. Throw back to when CXC was five years away, nah,’ or, ‘Can I, like, drop out of school now?’ And then after we ascended Mount CSEC and CAPE we were saying, ‘Guys, now that CXC is over, what am I supposed to do with my life?’

“But here we are today – sitting in our heavenly whites and pretty pinks – proud graduates eager to collect prizes and celebrate with our SAGHS family now and with our other loved ones later.

“I guess hard work really does pay off. We have all sacrificed a great deal to make it to this moment. Our achievements are testimony of the power of our resilience and discipline,” she said. This year, 99 per cent of SAGHS students who sat CSEC exams and 100 per cent of the students sitting CAPE achieved full certificates. In CESC the students brought home 755 ones, 96 twos and 18 threes, while CAPE students got 504 ones, 187 twos and 64 threes.

Oduwegwu also thanked parents, friends and teachers for their assistance as the pupils embarked on their five-year journey. She also presented the principal, Linda Dharrie and vice principal Anne Ramphalie-Motilal with bouquets.

Oduwegwu
also encouraged her schoolmates to use their talents to change the world, saying their resilience and their collective voices would be more than enough to overcome any obstacles which may come their way.

“When we use our gifts for the greater good, we become the change that would transform the world,” she said.