CEAGAN Seth Bothma for most of his high school career struggled with mathematics and science, until in Grade 11 when he grasped the magic of these subjects.
This was so inspiring to him and resulted in Ceagan becoming the Daniel Pienaar THS top achiever in the 2020 national matric exam.
Ceagan’s average was 85% and he passed with five distinctions. He came from being a B average learner to being a top student in the most difficult of times as matrics had to cope and stay focused during the COVID-19 lockdown levels.
Now, this student who once feared maths and science is registered at Nelson Mandela University for BEd FET Maths and SP Science.
“Hard work deserves rewards. And Ceagan worked extremely hard. By himself. Because we could not help him at all with maths or science,” said Heidi Bothma, Ceagan’s proud mother.
“He really struggled and had numerous extra classes which failed horribly, until his path crossed that of a wonderful maths teacher, Mrs Sanet Dunn.
“Apart from grasping the magic of maths and science, he also learned to understand the importance of being passionate, caring, and going the extra mile for one’s students. Now he wants to become a great teacher like Mrs Dunn.”
Ceagan now also tutors at Edu Swan, an after-school learning programme facility at Daniel Pienaar, run by Geraldine Swanepoel.
“She is the reason Ceagan went from a B English student to an A average student in English. His Science teacher also helped him immensely for which we are very thankful.
“We applied to numerous institutions and state bursaries. Ceagan knew he needed awesome grades to improve his chances of obtaining a bursary.”
Then COVID-19 came, followed by all the lockdown levels and Ceagan registered at the on-line Wolkskool and studied with the help of You Tube tutorials literally every day.
“He deserves the world for changing his whole discipline and routine around when things got difficult owing to COVID 19.
“His transformation was amazing and his story can bring hope to other young aspiring students who also come from humble beginnings. Those struggling with maths and science deserve to hear that they can also transform and succeed,” said Heidi.
– REPORTER
