Boston Germiston campus celebrates their 20th graduation

Boston City Campus and Business College Germiston, formerly known as Boston Business College Germiston, recently celebrated their 20th graduation ceremony.

The graduation was held at the Linder Auditorium, situated at the Wits School of Education, with 110 occupational space graduates and over 550 attendees.

The founding principal and branch manager, Cathy Visser, shared their story with the GCN.

“I opened the doors to my college at the beginning of January 1998.

“I had desks, chairs and computers still in their boxes, but no phones, no brochures and not even one book had been printed,” said Cathy.

Cathy and her team were determined to achieve their monthly targets and grow the college in spite of the fact that they had set up shop across the street from one of the most prominent higher learning institutions in South Africa at the time.

With the success of the college over the years, they proved to do just that, and it was on to the next challenge.

With the 20th graduation looming, evidently a milestone, Cathy and her team were looking forward to combining it with a celebration to commemorate their years in service.

“My first graduation was a combined Boston graduation, which was held at the Jeppe Quandrum in Bedfordview, in 1998.

“We had a few combined graduations after that and then I chose to have my own graduation each year, as I felt it was more intimate,” Cathy said.

An idea sparked to invite notable alumni from previous years to join in the festivities.

With non-existent home numbers, and people constantly changing their cellphone numbers, having the alumni from past years present at the graduation was looking like a pipe dream.

Nonetheless, they were persistent enough and managed to get representatives from each year to attend.

Cathy spoke fondly of her students, and said she was overcome by emotion, looking at all her past students had now achieved in their lives.

“I was especially proud to see Meriam Koqo-Hlamgane, branch manager from Boston City Campus Maponya Mall attend, as she was a student at my college,” Cathy said.

There were a number of speakers on the day, namely, Alta Mulder, the CEO of Secob and former secretary of the mayor of Germiston, Leanne Jamie, a former student and now training advisor at the Germiston campus, as well as Lucky Ramaje, a senior training advisor who was a student in 1998.

He also capped the 2017 graduates.

Sue de Roos, the managing director of Boston City Campus and retired director of Boston City Campus, Carol Prins, were both unable to attend but sent letters which the MC read to Cathy and the attendees.

Award winners on the day were capped by the alumni.

Siphiwe Mabuza, the best student overall for 2017, was given a bursary for the new higher certificate in marketing: specialisation in tourism.

He will continue his studies with the Germiston Campus in 2018.

The students and attendees were certainly entertained, with tunes from a violinist, singing from the staff members and gumboot dancing which is a tradition at the college.

In closing the graduates and alumni joined in to sing We are the champions.

With retirement slowly approaching, Cathy said she was proud of her journey with Boston and aspires to keep going strong for years to come.

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