Linda Msibi Waterford 2014

Kindly,

Linda

13 June 2015

Dear sponsor,

I am writing this letter, firstly to express my profound appreciation for the financial support you have given me. I would like to tell you about my progress in school. This year I am in IB2, my last year at Waterford Kamhlaba. We are already approaching the end of term 1 and the work keeps piling up. This term has been very challenging with a lot of work to catch up on. It is the most crucial because my grades will be used to apply to university. I have noticed that I need to create a balance between the piling school work and extracurricular activities, which is something I will be working on.

At the moment I am the Senior Vice Captain for Guedes which is one of the houses in the school. So far we have had the inter-house swimming gala where Guedes were the champions. It was good to see that our hard work paid off. I am also a choir leader for Altos. This weekend we are having the first music concert. The choir will be performing so I am looking forward to that. This year, I am also the Young Heroes Treasurer. Young Heroes is an NGO that raises money for orphaned children in Swaziland. At Waterford, we raise money by selling drinks and snacks during events. I really enjoy the thrill of estimating how many drinks we will need for each event as well as calculating the amount of sales we make at the end of each event. I am also part of an NGO called The Knowledge Institute which provides high school students with information on tertiary education and how to apply for university. We meet the students every second Saturday. I think this is why I no longer have time to rest but nonetheless, I enjoy it because I am giving other young people the opportunity to get access to better tertiary education.

All of these things require my time and sometimes it is difficult to manage my time or to even rest. I have then decided that next term I will reduce the number of activities I am involved in so that I have enough time to rest as well. On the other hand, it is very exciting that soon I will be applying to university and starting new adventures. I am looking forward to making new friends and exploring the world next year. However, it is sad that I will never see some of the friends I have made here at Waterford. Though I feel exhausted, I know that I must continue to work hard and remain focused.

I want to thank you again for giving me this tremendous opportunity to study at Waterford. It has opened many opportunities for me and has surely challenged me to grow strong and to be a hardworking and persistent individual.

Yours Faithfully

Linda Msibi

20 September 2014

Dear Sponsors

I am writing this letter to tell you of my progress.

Last term was very busy for me because I was involved in a lot of activities such as volleyball tournaments, SRC elections, the choir tour to Johannesburg and others. Even though the term was busy, I am proud to have still managed to obtain good grades. I obtained 36 points. As you remember, in the last letter I mentioned that I was hoping to be the next SRC President. Unfortunately, I did not make it but nonetheless I enjoyed the campaign experience. During the elections, I made so many friends especially in the lower forms.

Also, in the last week of the term the choir went for a tour around Johannesburg and performed at four different schools and a church on the last day of the tour. Although it was tiring sometimes to sing the same songs, it was very delightful to hear that people enjoyed our performances. One aspect that stood out for me was at the end of the church service where we met many of the congregants who not only enjoyed our performances but were also alumni of the school.

This term, I hope to continue being involved around the school even though it might be hard because I will be preparing for my end-of-year exams and working on my Extended Essay. Thank you again for the great opportunity to study at Waterford.

Yours sincerely,

Linda Msibi IB1

Dear UWC

My name is Linda Msibi. I am 17 years old and doing IB1 this year. I am writing this letter to thank you for giving me the opportunity to study at Waterford. I have now started the IB programme and I am enjoying myself even though it can get a bit challenging sometimes.

When I started IB I promised myself to be more involved in school life. So I started a small project with a friend called 'Pledge A Pad'. It's a small organisation that promotes women’s empowerment in Swaziland and also donates sanitary towels to underprivileged girls. I enjoy working on this project because it has taught me the importance of sharing knowledge with others and I have also built great relationships with many young girls.

I also made a promise to make more new friends in IB. I have made friends with so many people from around world and it is very rewarding because they share a lot of information with me about where they come from. For example, my roommate from Bangladesh always tells me that some of the things we learn about Bangladesh in Geography are exaggerated. This year I also decided to challenge myself by running for the SRC President position in the school elections. At the moment, the campaign is still going on so I cannot say how it will go. If all goes well, I will write to you and let you know. Besides new challenges, I still play volleyball. I play the setter position in the girls senior volley team. Also, this year, I joined the school athletics team and participated in the inter-house athletics competition between our three houses, Guedes, Stern and Henderson. I am in Guedes and we were second place after Stern and Henderson was in third place. Surprisingly, after participating in the inter-schools competition, I made the school’s athletics team and competed against other schools in Swaziland. I ran the 800m and came first. I also ran 100m relay and we came second. In the end, Waterford were the champions.

I am also in the school choir. I sing alto and I am also one of the alto leaders in the choir. We are going to have our very first choir tour to Pretoria, South Africa, at the end of term. I am looking forward to it. I am a member of Link Group which is a creative group of students that organises school events and promotes integration between students and awareness of global issues among students. We have organised a number of events such as UWC Day.

This term I am looking forward to organising Waterford’s Human Rights Day and the Waterford Fete. Also, on Thursdays, I am involved in a community service programme called Community Entrepreneurship Development. It focuses on teaching and educating small business entrepreneurs the basics of starting and operating a business. CED is a very inspiring project because it reminds me of the importance of sharing knowledge with others and having responsibility. It has taught me to manage my time well and to plan ahead as we do that for every session. There will be a Geography trip to Durban, South Africa, later in the term where we will be doing our fieldwork for our Geography Internal Assessment.

Thank you again for the opportunity you have given me. Without it I would not have the great learning experiences and encounters that Waterford has provided.

Yours sincerely,

Linda Msibi