THROUGH hard work, focus and a passion to one day become a doctor, Grantleigh College’s Kristien van der Walt achieved the highest matric results of all Zululand’s IEB (Independent Examinations Board) pupils this year.
She accomplished an impressive eight distinctions in Afrikaans, English, Mathematics, Life Orientation, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Visual Art and Trinity College Music.
The 18-year-old said she feels proud that her hard work has paid off.
‘I’d like to thank my family, particularly my mom, and all my teachers for all their support,’ said Kristien.
‘It was challenging, but I like to take up a good challenge.’
She has been provisionally accepted to study medicine at the University of Cape Town with hopes of one day specialising in psychiatry.
‘I really want to help people and psychiatry is an interesting combination of medicine and psychology.
‘I also want to build a solid purpose in life and hope to contribute to society in a positive and significant way.
‘But in the meantime, I don’t have any immediate set goals. My goals are to take things one day at a time.’
Grantleigh College Executive Headmaster Shaun McMurtry congratulated the star pupil.
‘It’s a huge accomplishment to achieve a distinction in any subject, but to achieve it in multiple subjects attests to Kristien’s God-given talent and outstanding diligence,’ said McMurtry.
‘She was a fantastic role model for our whole school.
‘I also want to pay tribute to our teaching staff whose dedication and professionalism guided these pupils towards achieving their full potential.’
Outstanding results
Other stellar performers were Caelia Voysey and Megan Sutherland who had distinctions for seven subjects as well as Julia McGrath and Genevieve Hanbury-King who aced six subjects.
All 59 Grantleigh candidates who wrote the matric exams passed, with 20% of them achieving an aggregate average of over 80%.
The school saw 128 distinctions (Level 7 Passes), which equates to 2.2 distinctions per pupil.
