Primary school children, matrics and tertiary students were the focus of a special service at St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Grahamstown on Sunday, 30 October, that also honoured local graduates from tertiary institutions in the region.
Primary school children, matrics and tertiary students were the focus of a special service at St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Grahamstown on Sunday, 30 October, that also honoured local graduates from tertiary institutions in the region.
Organised by Eastcape Midlands College, the service was led by Father Bill Lovett OFM assisted by Rhodes University’s vice chancellor Dr Sizwe Mabizela, and PhD candidate in Industrial Sociology Ziyanda Ntlokwane.
Along with uplifting singing by the congregation and choir, a highlight was a lively motivational talk by Rhodes University BCom graduate Kola Mavume.
Encouraging school children and students about to start their exams, she pointed to the more than 20 graduates in the room from their region, with similar backgrounds and upbringings to them, whose presence in the room was testimony to the possibilities life held for them.
“You can be what whatever you want to be in life,” she told the children and young adults.
“You have a purpose to be here. You are not a mistake – you did not come to life by chance.”
Tearing up a R20 note, she said: “The moment you realise how important you are, and that your most valuable resource in life is your brain – that is what’s going to take you where you want to be.”
Graduates from Rhodes University, the University of Fort Hare, Walter Sisulu University and Eastcape Midlands College – which had approached the church, in Extension 4, to host the event – were among those who came to lend their support for the event, dressed in their graduation gowns and colours.
