CG – Career Guidance
By Luyanda Kota
Winter Schools seems to be dominated by Career Guidance after tutoring to some extent that tutoring on its own is a form of career guidance because working towards any career requires consciousness about marks and entrance requirements. We kicked started this with Allan Gray giving a workshop about the scholarships that they offer. This was very important as we hoping that at least one Ikamvanite would obtain this scholarship.
This offered Entrepreneurship workshop to our grade 12s and we are hoping that some of our learners will be entrepreneurs one day and grow the economy while giving much needed job opportunities to the wider youth that is predominantly unemployed.
We also had study methods by Ginia and we know how important it is for our learners to add on their tips of studying. Last but not least we had Mentors meeting their mentees. We envisaged that mentors will be speaking to the mentees about their careers and where they are interns of making plans for the year after matric. We also hoped that they Mentors will have some material about bursaries but that was not possible and we will need to make sure that they get this info soon.
Computer Literacy
by Sinethemba Luthango
The holiday programme was a great experience, and I enjoyed from the beginning to the end. As a Computer Literacy teacher, I enjoyed my classes. The work that I have done with my learners was very effective because most of the learners enjoyed my classes as well as learned and benefited from them. The only thing that was a dilemma was time because we did not have enough time to cover everything I wish we could. We did, however, cover much the basics. Provided more time in the future, I believe we will do much better and succeed even more with our learners in the area of Computer Literacy.
The computer classes should be offered to all our learners because Computer Literacy is vital and necessary for all of them. Giving them the opportunity to learn computer skills is a great step to open doors for them in real life because they need these experiences in order to be successful socially, personally, academically, and professionally in life. For me, I enjoy my work as a Computer Literacy teacher, and I believe that I am making a difference to our learners’ lives. I will still continue doing what I love, and that is being a Computer Literacy teacher.
Media, Image, and Expression
By Luyanda Kota
Once again the Media, Image and Expression programme was well represented at the last Tsiba Winter School. The line up of activities started with Chri Fan getting organised and offering Creative writing workshops, creative writing provides a platform for expression and when that foundation is there poetry and many more writing activities such as essay writing are possible.
We also had Art workhops with Donna and our learners created tangible things such as tags which if I may say were beautiful while they had strong messages on them. From there we had poetry and we are happy to present the poem at the bottom of the article as the artcle written by our learners while they were at the Winter School.
Last but by no means less we had our photography sessions were conducted by Sena Allen, Emma van der Vliet and Nicola Pallit. This provided a lot of pretty pictures that had a theme called FIFA Fever. These provided enough for the exhibition that was held at Desmond Tutu Hall in the Talent show.
Music Is…
Music is my passion
My inspiration
Makes me think of passion
Music is my everything
It reminds me of old days
It is my inner voice
Makes me feel good
Makes me feel sad
Music is my freedom
Music makes me feel welcome
Feel energetic, makes me feel warm
Music makes me feel pessimistic
Not happy at all
Music is my home
Music is my let out
Let out for sadness and stress
Let out for anger and pain
Music is my mentor
Music is my world
Written by the 11B students of IkamvaYouth Makhaza Winter Programme
Taught by Christopher Fan, IkamvaYouth Intern
Tutoring
by Phillip Mcelu
This was the best holiday programme IkamvaYouth has ever had from how everything was organized to how the tutors managed their time. With the holiday programme we are able to perform the IkamvaYouth principles the learners ratio to tutors, because these kids in their schools the is one teacher with 40 to 50 learners in the class and due to that many learners get left behind; the thing that I found within many subject each chapter is a link to the next one therefore if they don’t get to understand the basics they are lost throughout the curriculum. We as the tutors of IkamvaYouth we try by all means to close that gap.
The first thing that we do is shrink the ratio into 5-6 learners per tutor. This allows the learner to be free to ask question to the tutors. In the holiday programme we had good number of tutors that were keen and hard working. What I found and works really well for IkamvaYouth tutors is that tutors get to tutor what they are knowledgeable in and that make it easier for a tutor to come up with better analogies and examples to explain complex problems.
During the holiday programme we were able to cover most of the subjects (Maths, Physical Science, Life Science, Geography, English, Accounting, Economics, business Studies and history) with grades 10 through 12; with grade 9, we came up with the idea to cover Maths, English, and Computer. We chose these subjects because they are the core foundation of the entire curriculum they do in school. English is the sole language that these learner get tested on, and we saw that most of the learners who do not understand their work is due to the fact they do not understand English entirely. Mathematics is one of the subjects that are compulsory for them to do until grade 12.
With the other grades (10 -12), we use the national curriculum from the South African Department of Education. We downloaded previous papers, worksheets, and exams for them to work through with the tutors. On the holiday programme, exceptional rooms were provided to tutors by TSiBA education who also allowed us to do some teaching on subjects where we saw the need (i.e. re-teaching a chapter that you see that the whole class does not understand).
Internship Profiles
Christopher Fan is a recent university graduate from Michigan State University. Christopher has a Bachelor’s of Arts (B.A.) degree in Comparative Cultures & Politics with a Specialization in Asian Studies and a Minor in Chinese. Christopher’s interests include identity studies, youth development, social justice, gender studies, and sexual politics. By being a part of IkamvaYouth Makhaza, Christopher hopes to challenge and support learners and tutors to believe in the power of the individual and of a community. Christopher believes that individuals have the ability to make a profound change in themselves as well as their communities at large. An individual, much like a singular community, must have the confidence that it is he/she who is the master of his/her life. He believes that everyone, especially youth, needs to have a personal drive and a person confidence to go get what their heart desires, whether it’s education, employment, equality, civil rights, etc. Christopher wishes to either pursue a dual master’s programme in Social Work, Criminal Justice, and/or Public Health or enlist in the United States Military. His end goal is to work with the government to better assess social welfare, social justice, and initiatives focused on youth. Christopher has grown and benefited from IkamvaYouth just as much as the learners and tutors have from him. We write our own destinies.
“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself” – Harvey Fierstein
Ginia O’Neil is a recent college graduate from Michigan State University. Ginia has a Bachelor of Arts in Family Child Ecology and intends to attend graduate school top pursue a Masters degree in Social Work. She traveled from The United States to work at IkamvaYouthYouth because she has always had an interest in working with youth and guiding them to a bright and happy future. Ginia has thoroughly enjoyed working at IkamvaYouthYouth and looks forward to spending the rest of the winter there.
“You only live once, but if you do it right… once is enough.”
Miriam Rodriguez is going into her senior year at Santa Clara University studying Mechanical Engineering and Spanish. Miriam is originally from Philadelphia. She plays Field Hockey, and loves acting and dancing. Miriam also love to travel and learn about the communities and people that live in each of the different places she has traveled. She decided to come to South Africa because she wanted to experience Cape Town a town she has only heard good things about. Miriam wanted to come and help at IkamvaYouth Youth because she loves to teach and be around kids. She loves math and science and is always excited to share her knowledge and love for the subjects to those wanting to learn. Miriam hopes to one day live in South America owning her own business of some kind.
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” – Thoreau
Sarah Brunner just finished her third year at the University of Portland studying Sociology and Social Justice and will be completing her final year this year. She is originally from Los Angeles but hopes to continue travelling all over the world after completing university. In Grade 5 she travelled to Southeast Asia for her uncle’s wedding and has had a great desire explore other cultures ever since then. She discovered a profound interest in human rights while at university and decided to find a way to put into action by combining it with her other passion, travelling. Through extensive research, she found a program that would satisfy this goal, which set her up with Ikamva Youth. Working for Ikamva has been a very fulfilling experience for her, learning not only about the incredible culture but also what she wants to do in her future. She sees how imperative education is for this great country’s future and hopes to continue to help it achieve its one goal.
“The reward for conformity was that everyone liked you except yourself” –Rita Mae Brown
Hobie King is a senior Math and Physics Major at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. He is originally from Birmingham, AL. He plays rugby for his University, is an active member of Beta Theta Pi Fraternity, and plays the saxophone for the University jazz ensemble. He enjoys outdoor activities such as fly fishing, camping, kayaking, and climbing. Hobie became interested in South Africa after reading The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay several years ago. After communicating with IkamvaYouth for several months, he decided to spend the summer in South Africa to help with the program and to experience South African culture. He strongly believes that individual choices and decisions are greatly significant and we must each take responsibility for the type of person we become. After graduation, Hobie plans to spend time abroad doing service before going to graduate school in mathematics.
“The Great Architect of the Universe never created a substitute for results”—Hobart Amory McWhorter
Lloyd Lungu