By STAFF REPORTER
Awongwa Magopeni, the top scholar of Holy Cross’s pioneer Grade 7 class in 2022, has achieved her dream of being accepted at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls.
Awongwa’s success is a perfect farewell gift for the school’s principal, Kary McConnachie, who grew Holy Cross over ten years from a Foundation-Phase-only school into a fully-fledged primary school.
McConnachie is retiring from a lifetime of service to education, including teaching at most of the schools in the city at some point and having been the principal of Kuyasa Special School before moving to Holy Cross.
Magopeni’s achievement embodies the primary mission of Holy Cross. While the school is open to all, it was started by the brothers of the Holy Cross monastery to serve children from the surrounding farms, giving them the best possible springboard for life through outstanding education in small classes in the monastery’s beautiful environs.
The move to the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy will be a massive adjustment for Magopeni, who lives a stone’s throw from Holy Cross and has thus always walked to school.
She is both “excited and scared” but looks forward to “meeting new people”. (Coming from a class of seven learners, who can blame her!)
