The ManicaPost
Morris Mtisi Post Correspondent
THIS year’s Speech and Prize-Giving at Alpha Institute focused on changing the mindset of the learner. It was youth centred and different from all others in the past years. Its main speakers were youth icons who have conquered academics and charged with the urge to soar higher and higher refusing to let the sky to be the limit.
The guest of honour, one Fortune Chikuruwo, is a doctor and holder of A Masters degree in Medicinal Chemistry Research and PHD in Phleboratory and Chemistry. He is only 27 but already an academic giant and entrepreneurial magnate.
A product of Alpha Institute and academic torch bearer, Onai Hara, currently studying at Leeds University in the UK flew into Zimbabwe specifically to attend the Speech and Prize Giving Day.
Speaking at the occasion, Dr Fortune Chikuruwo kept both students and parents on the edges of their chairs when he chronicled his academic journey to date.
“I was never in the top ten at any one time. In fact I was an average student who had very little interest in books,” said the youthful doctor. “I must confess I was a little on the trouble-making side. Little did I know that I had the brain and the potential to study anything and become anything-and-everything. That is what life is like. There is no one called a dofo (hopeless and useless learner) in this life. If you struggle and find learning bleak or fruitless, there is something you are not doing that the competent ones are doing. Find out what it is and fix it,” said the Phleboratory and Chemistry guru.
“Your 2019 theme: ‘Creating an Entrepreneurial Mindset in Today’s Youth through Education,’ is most relevant and most appropriate. I see this college becoming the centre of changing learners’ mindsets. I see this college becoming a place where learners are taught and trained to fit purpose. This is what 21st century education means . . . creating employers who will create other employers, not producing employees to set new records of unemployment.”
The Qatar-based doctor emphasised that difficult times like the ones Zimbabwe is going through create opportunities. “But it takes effort and seriousness of purpose to break through and climb over obstacles and horizons,” he said.
A detailed report of Dr Fortune’s wise counsel and encouraging story shall appear in The Manica Post soon. (You cannot afford to miss this one).
Onai Hara, former Alpha Institute academic star now studying for a Masters degree in Disability Studies was gracious music to listen to. She paved a way to the dizzy heights of personal success for Alpha learners to follow. Her presence at the function is testimony of her heartfelt and permanent attachment to this great hub of meaningful learning. She had no script to follow making her passionate, short and sweet speech flow straight and direct from her heart.
“We were given the same time each on this earth and equal opportunities to get what we want from life,” said the Leeds undergraduate. “My background is very humble. At some point I could not afford school fees to complete my ‘O’ level studies at St Dominic’s High School. I deferred and was not in school for two terms. On reconnecting that was how I ended up at Alpha Institute in the safe and enabling hands of Mr Nangisayi Marange, the college principal. With love and wisdom he assisted to make me find my new subject combination and realise my educational dream.
“So you see . . . it is not where you are coming from, that matters; but where you want to go and going that are the issues. I worked hard at school and reaped what I sowed. I am still working hard, and I am reaping what I am sowing. I am happy to do what I am doing and the sky is not even the limit. All of you here can walk my path and rich farther destinations,” she said directly to the students. “We take off from different starting points in the race of life, but we all get to the end of the race at our own time and get our reward for finishing the race. Some start ahead of others . . . that’s life, but we all get to the end of the race, as Pastor Made correctly said . . . so long as we don’t allow detractors and obstacles to disturb our focus. I did not allow anybody and anything to stop me from pushing hard towards the end of my race. And here am I almost at the end of my journey of hard work . . . almost ready to finish the hardest part of my race.”
The former Alpha head-girl and best student of the year came all the way from Leeds University in the UK to encourage her former school to keep the candle burning . . . to demonstrate permanent affiliation with it and to rekindle the light of the star that she was when she was student a few years ago.
Onai Hara once assisted in the production of Action Power Television programme on ZTV with the deaf and dumb which she described as her calling and passion. She also was involved in the introduction of the UNCRPD programme which is a Convention on the realities of people living with disabilities which Zimbabwe signed. In this programme on ZTV, they looked at the articles of Convention to educate the public on the constitution and mandate of UNCRPD.
“I grew up suffering from having-not,” said Onai Hara. “It was other people who came into my life and our family to help. Why should I not help those that are disadvantaged in whatever way or ways? My life and my background were my school of life. We do not go to school for ourselves as individuals alone, but for those around us, especially the disadvantaged in our communities.”
Onai Hara is a 2018-2019 Bi-Trust scholar studying for a Masters Degree in Disability Studies at Leeds University. She is holder of a Media Management degree obtained at Rhodes University-South Africa. She was a social worker student at the University of Zimbabwe
Seventh Adventist Pastor Aleck Made earlier on put the cart before the horse when he used the Bible to quote verses that gave sense, purpose and direction to the learners.
Pastor Made left the audience in stitches when he asked, “How can you tell someone ‘I love you’ at school? What kind of love is that . . . your parents are still buying everything on your body from the dress . . . the skirt . . . the shoes . . . the . . . whatever it is . . . everything! How can you love someone?” he roared with evangelical fire and beautifully rebuked students for forgetting their purpose at school. “Focus on your race (learning.) Don’t allow detractors shouting on the terraces. Keep running your race . . . don’t look back . . . don’t look to the sides. You cannot stop to attend to detractors and hope to win the race.”
This year’s Alpha Institute Speech and Prize-Giving Day was different from all others since the independent college started more than ten years ago. The guest of honour is only 27 and Onai is a former student studying in the UK, both tenderly young but already shining role models in what they are doing. The two beautifully and effectively managed to illustrate how hard work and success are doable twins in the matrix of personal development.
Well done Nangisayi Marange . . . and the Alpha Institute, the students and the parents, for taking this great school a step higher! Youths, and most of them learners in schools, are the window of hope in the context of both personal and national development. They need encouragement and space to motivate each other and to show each other the way to the end of the rainbow. Exactly what happened at this year’s Speech and Prize Giving at Alpha!
