Celebrating ‘you gorgeous Grade 12 girls’
Speakers inspire at Vision4 Women
ACCOUNTANCY graduate Amanda Hobana warmed up an icy Tramways Building this past weekend when she addressed the Vision4 Women Destined for Greatness networking session.
Hobana, 21, received a standing ovation for her talk aimed at “you gorgeous Grade 12 girls” chosen to take part in the Vision4 Women mentoring programme, telling them to “grab it with both hands”.
The annual celebration included a mock graduation ceremony where more than 50 girls from township schools in Nelson Mandela Bay were capped with degrees in the field they hope to study next year.
Judge Nolwazi Boqwana, originally from Motherwell but who today is a judge in the high court of the Western Cape, was a real-life example of this success and presented the keynote, while Mrs Eastern Cape Linda Ntetha – a matric-girl mentor – highlighted the importance differences between internal and external beauty.
Masiphathisane High School old girl Hobana echoed the need for young women to believe in their abilities.
“Another girl’s beauty is not the absence of your own, just as another girl’s intelligence is not the absence of your own. Do not let anyone make you shrink yourself, don’t get lost in the crowd,” she said.
“In my matric year, I even struggled and I failed dismally with 30% in my exams. However, what matters is the finishing line and after that 30% earlier in the year, I was the only one in my school who got a distinction in the end.”
In spite of shining in her first and second year at NMMU, she failed her third year and had to repeat the year.
“When failure hits you, it can paralyse but I told myself ‘I will slay’.”
And slay she did: Hobana graduated last month with her BCom accounts. Not only that, but last year she was invited to represent South Africa at the Girls 20 Summit (G20) in Beijing, China and her voice was added to that of other young leaders from around the world. Picture: GILLIAN McAINSH