President urges graduates at childhood school: Be brave, embrace new challenges

PRESIDENT Christine Carla Kangaloo was held up as a model for students at her Alma Mater, Grant Memorial Presbyterian Primary School as she “returned home” on Friday to celebrate the its graduation and prize-giving function.

In keeping with the theme of this year’s graduation, embracing the endless possibilities, principal Donna Ramjohn-Khan challenged the students to aspire to great heights.

“I declare that someone in this year group will one day, just like our guest speaker, will become the president of this country. I may not be alive to witness it but it will happen.”

The ceremony, held at the Susamachar Presbyterian Church, San Fernando, also doubled as a farewell function for Ramjohn-Khan who will be retiring.

Acting school supervisor two Allan Ramdeen, who attended on behalf of the Minister of Education, lauded Ramjohn-Khan as one who successfully navigated the school during the pandemic. Ramdeen said the principal kept the school afloat and, further, delved into new areas of exploration to help the students realise their full potential.

Kangaloo who was “welcomed back home," chose to show students a photograph of her graduation from Grant School many years ago to illustrate that she was just like them – uncertain of the future, of leaving her friends behind and fearful of not making new friends.

“The little girl in that picture is no greater and is no smaller than any of you who are graduating today. The little girl in that picture is all of you. The only difference between that little girl and all of you who are graduating today is time.

“As I look at that little girl in this picture, I ask myself – what do I want to say to her now that, decades later, I have returned to my alma mater as an older and hopefully wiser person – as all of you will be some day.

Kangaloo said her first advice would be to "enjoy the occasion and stop worrying about the future.”

As one of only three girls who passed for St Joseph’s Convent while the majority of her friends went to Naparima High School, she said she was scared and worried she would not make new friends.

“What do you think happened? I went on to make, at St Joseph’s Convent, some of my best friends in life, many of whom I still hang out with to this day."

Kangaloo also advised that change could be scary but exciting.

“I would tell her (the little girl in the picture) that while she might be apprehensive about going to a strange, new school, that she should be excited about how much she is going to learn and about how many different and wonderful people and subjects she is going to get exposed to there.

"I would tell young Christine, and I tell all of you this morning, 'Don’t be afraid.'"

She advised graduates not to measure their worth as human beings by how well they did in the Secondary Entrance Assessment Examination (SEA) as that did not determine one’s success.

She recalled failing a law exam, remembering the love and support from her father at the time and how she redid the examination and passed.

“With all of the advantages we are given in life, including that of having attended Grant Memorial, all of us will still make mistakes and all of us will, at some time or the other, fall short of the goals we set ourselves. What matters in times like that, is not that we have failed, but that we are loved.”

“Graduands, you are off on an exciting and exhilarating new journey. All the very best to you. I know that you will take it all in your stride.

"Embrace your new school. Embrace your new friends. Embrace your new subjects, as difficult as they may be.

"Embrace the hurdles you have to overcome, knowing that you will be all the better for it. Embrace the endless possibilities that life has to offer.”